BENGALURU: Twelve days after Congress MLA Anand Singh’s resignation sparked off a major political turmoil leading to 16 MLAs resigning and two more withdrawing support to the Congress-JDS coalition government, the Karnataka Assembly will convene for the monsoon session on Friday.
With Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar yet to take a call on the resignations, uncertainty looms large, not just for the coalition, but for the opposition BJP as well as the rebel MLAs themselves. Even the Supreme Court’s intervention could not bring respite to the ongoing political crisis in the state.
The 11 MLAs who had been holed up in a hotel in Mumbai made a dash, quite literally, to the Speaker’s office on Thursday evening following the Supreme Court’s directive.
The Speaker, however, applied the brakes insisting that he was under no compulsion to fast-track procedures.
Lawmakers Byrati Basavaraj, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Shivaram Hebbar, BC Patil, S T Somashekhar, Narayana Gowda, Gopalaiah, H Vishwanath, Pratap Gouda Patil, Munirathna and Mahesh Kumathalli arrived at the Speaker’s chamber, in order of appearance, minutes past 6 pm on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court, which heard the rebel MLAs’ petition, had permitted them to appear before the Speaker and convey their intent to resign.
Following their visit, Ramesh Kumar confirmed that all resignations were now in the “correct format”, but that does not give any clarity to the government. Meanwhile,
Congress has urged the Speaker to consider its petition to disqualify the rebel MLAs.
With Ramesh Kumar refusing to set a deadline for disposal of resignation as well as disqualification petitions, the coalition will continue to be in limbo. Government chief whip Ganesh Hukkeri on Thursday issued a whip asking all members to be present in the House on all days of the session.
Despite the resignation, the whip will apply to all rebel MLAs since they continue to be members of the party as well as the House. He said, “Violation of the whip will invite action under the anti-defection law.” But with all the 11 MLAs heading back to Mumbai in the evening, they may give the session a miss, at least on the first day.
“I have videographed the entire proceedings and this will be sent to the SC registrar,” said Ramesh Kumar.
He now has two sets of disqualification petitions to look into — one submitted by the Congress demanding action against Mahesh Kumathalli and Ramesh Jarkiholi, and another submitted on Tuesday following the Congress legislature party meeting demanding action against 10 MLAs, excluding Ramalinga Reddy, Anand Singh and Roshan Baig.
“The JDS’ petition is not in set format. It has been filed by a person who is not a member of either the Assembly or Council, and hence it is not admissible,” Ramesh Kumar said.
His ruling came a day after JDS moved a petition against H Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda.
With the Speaker refusing to give any clarity on the status of the resignations, the BJP too has been forced to put its plans on hold.
The party won’t push for a ‘no-confidence’ motion just yet, not until they are sure of numbers on both sides. All eyes are now on the attendance on both sides in the House on Friday.