July 20, 2019
With the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition in Karnataka
ignoring the two deadlines given by the Karnataka Governor
to prove its majority during a trust vote, the Speaker adjourned the Assembly
till Monday.
This is after the ruling coalition questioned the Governor’s power to issue
such a direction. Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy cited a
Supreme Court verdict that a Governor cannot act as
ombudsman of Legislature. He requested the Speaker to decide whether the
Governor can set a deadline.
We have approached Supreme Court to contend two major issues: Parties have
the right to issue whips to their legislators and this cannot be taken away
by any court. When the house is in session, Governor can’t issue directions
or deadlines to when we should have a trust vote. – G Parameshwara,
Karnataka deputy chief minister
Kumaraswamy has attacked the opposition BJP, accusing the party of offering
Rs. 40-50 crore to MLAs to switch sides. The BJP has alleged the coalition is
resorting to delaying tactics as it appears to be in a minority after losing
the support of 18 lawmakers.
Sixteen legislators – 13 from the Congress and three from JDS – have resigned
in the last two weeks. Two Independent legislators have withdrawn their
support. If the resignations of the 15 MLAs who approached the Supreme Court
are accepted, the ruling coalition’s tally will drop to 101.
Kumaraswamy filed an application in Supreme Court seeking to establish the
party’s right to issue a whip to its MLAs. The application says that the
Governor sent a communication directing that the confidence motion and the
trust vote should be held before 1:30 PM on Friday.
In a dramatic turn of events, BJP staged an overnight dharna in the state
assembly alleging deliberate delay by the ruling coalition in proving trust
vote to buy time and save the government from crumbling.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/karnataka-trust-vote-adjourned-to-monday
