BENGALURU: Two days after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy moved the motion of confidence to prove his majority, the Karnataka Assembly is nowhere close to a trust vote. After hours of debate, uproar and sloganeering in the Assembly for the second consecutive day on Friday, Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar adjourned the session to Monday, thereby extending the coalition's government's life by three more days.
Though BJP insisted that the House conduct the proceedings on the confidence motion until midnight, if required, and go ahead with the trust vote, Congress and JDS MLAs insisted on an adjournment citing the urgent need to return to their "drought-hit constituencies".
Legislators of the coalition stalled proceedings multiple times, reminding the Speaker that as a practice, the House is adjourned in the afternoon on Fridays and that they need to urgently go back to their constituencies. But surprisingly, when the House was adjourned for the day late in the evening, the MLAs lined up to board a bus taking them straight to a resort. The same was the state of BJP MLAs who had stayed put in the Assembly hall on Thursday night as a mark of protest.
With the House being adjourned to Monday — on the assurance of Congress legislature party chief Siddaramaiah that the process of trust vote can be concluded in a single day — all three parties have gone back to concentrating on keeping their flock together.
Despite another letter from Governor Vajubhai Vala, taking the total number of communications sent so far to three, to the Chief Minister insisting that he prove majority before the end of day on Friday, preliminary submissions is all that could be concluded. The coalition's appeal to extend discussions till Tuesday was shot down by the Speaker. "There is no chance that I will allow this discussion to go on till Tuesday. I appeal that it should be completed today. You tell me how much time you need for debates," Ramesh Kumar asked the government pointing out to the Governor's directives as well.
On the day the House should have decided whether the government has a majority or not, it discussed everything other than the motion of confidence, which was the only agenda for the day. "It is a privilege of members of the House to express their opinion and debate the motion of confidence. Their rights should not be curtailed," insisted Siddaramaiah. The point was reiterated by at least one dozen coalition members including minister Priyank Kharge, who claimed it was alright for the House to debate the motion even for 60 days.
Kumaraswamy, who during his preliminary submission, claimed at least half a dozen times that he was not clinging to power, tactfully made overtures to the Vokkaliga community. "Had I wanted to save the government, I would have rushed from the US as soon as Anand Singh resigned. But I stayed back and took part in a temple ground-breaking ceremony because the seer (Adichunchanagiri mutt's pontiff) insisted on my presence. I even met many people from my community (Vokkaliga) and investors," Kumaraswamy said in a not-so-subtle manner.
From superstition to the Governor's role during the session, from temples and lemons to cattle market and horse-trading, from the protection of MLAs to apparent embarrassment that legislators are facing — the coalition dragged on and bought time by discussing various issues, testing the BJP's patience.