BENGALURU: As the House assembles on Thursday morning for the trust vote, all eyes will be on one man- Speaker Ramesh Kumar.
The SC has given the Speaker a free hand, said Ramesh Kumar, gratefully acknowledging that the SC verdict has increased his responsibility and that he would go by the procedure laid down in the Constitution, with respect to 15 Congress and JDS MLAs who resigned.
The Supreme Court has not laid down any restrictions on the power of the Speaker, and instead, has given him full freedom, saying, “Discretion should not be fettered by any direction from the court.’’
The three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice R Gogoi said, “The Speaker cannot be forced to take a decision within a time-frame.’’
The Speaker, who met the media, explained the procedure how a trust vote takes place.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Congress leaders led by CLP leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao and others have urged the Speaker to disqualify all Congress legislators - Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumtahalli, Prathap Gouda Patil, BC Patil, Byrathi Basavraj, S T Somashekar, Munirathna, MTB Nagraj, Dr K Sudhakar, Roshan Baig and Anand Singh.
They also urged the Speaker to move against former KPJP member R Shankar, because his outfit KPJP joined the Congress, and this violates the whip.
Former Advocate General Ravi Verma Kumar said, “The SC order has given the Speaker full power.’’
CM Kumaraswamy complained to the Speaker against the three rebel MLAs - H Vishwanath (Hunsur), Narayana Gowda (KR Pet) and H Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi).
The JDs has issued a whip to its MLAs to be present for the trust vote at Vidhana Soudha tomorrow.
The whip states that if the session isn’t attended, or there is a cross-vote, action will be initiated under the Anti-Defection Law.