The 15 Karnataka rebel Congress and JD-S legislators and two Independents yesterday filed an joint petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction to Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to hold the trust vote by 5pm today.
“We pray for an order directing the floor test in the Karnataka Assembly on the vote of confidence moved by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on July 18 be conducted forthwith and completed on or before 5pm on July 22,” said the writ petition by the 15 rebels and two Independents.
The petitions were filed by apex court advocate Disha Rai due to apprehension that the chief minister or his ruling Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) coalition partners will make yet another attempt to defer the trial of strength on the trust vote on some pretext or other.
“It is apprehended that the chief minister, who is heading the minority government may make himself scarce from the proceedings today, as it is reliably learnt that in a desperate attempt to avoid the trust vote, he (Kumaraswamy) may also rake up an emergent situation and use medical emergencies, including hospitalisation to avoid the trust vote,” said the petition.
It was even claimed earlier that Kumaraswamy is reportedly delaying the floor test on the advice of astrologers. The JD-S has rubbished the allegations.
“It’s rubbish and a plant by a desperate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the social media,” Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) spokesman Ramesh Babu said refuting a report in a news blog (Rightlog.in) that astrologers advised Kumaraswamy that he would win the trust vote if it’s held on Tuesday and not Monday, as decided by him, his ruling ally (the Congress) and Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Friday.
“If you think Kumaraswamy goes by what astrologers, soothsayers and fortune-tellers advise him, then he would not have sought a floor test to prove the majority and save his 13-month coalition government from falling apart,” asserted Babu.
Meanwhile a constitution expert said the Karnataka Assembly Speaker “flouted the constitution” by disregarding the message from the governor to conduct the floor test.
Former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, Subhash Kashyap, said Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar was bound to respect the message of the governor as per the Constitution.
Governor Vajubhai Vala had sent three messages to the Speaker, asking him to complete the confidence motion moved by the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy by 6pm on Friday, but it did not happen. The debate on the motion, which began on Thursday, remained incomplete on Friday and is slated to continue today.
Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa with BJP MLAs during a meeting at a resort in Bengaluru yesterday.
