A trust vote will be held this week on the floor of the Karnataka assembly and will perhaps put an end to the current political crisis. The trust vote will be held at 11am on Thursday, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah confirmed to TNM. "We are confident of proving majority," he said. Till Thursday, the Assemby proceedings have also been adjounred as the BJP had said they won't take part in any discussions with government being a minority.
This after Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar announced that a vote of confidence for Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy will take place only after Tuesday when the apex court is expected to arrive at a conclusion.
The apex court had ordered status quo be maintained till Tuesday regarding the resignations and disqualifications of the 10 dissident MLAs who had approached the court.
Both the Chief Minister and the Opposition had met the Speaker ahead of the day’s proceedings asking the Speaker to set a time for a vote of confidence or a trust vote respectively in light of the current crisis.
Meanwhile, with no signs of reconciliation, five more dissident MLAs of the ruling coalition in Karnataka approached the Supreme Court on Monday urging the top court to direct the Speaker to accept their resignations expeditiously. The new five MLAs - Munirathna Naidu (RR Nagar), Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar), MTB Nagaraj (Hoskote), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura) and Anand Singh (Vijayanagara). The 10 other MLAs are Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), ST Somashekhar (Yeshwanthpura), BC Patil (Hirekerur), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), Prathapgouda Patil (Maski), Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), AH Vishwanath (Hunasuru) and Narayana Gowda (Krishanarajapete).
In their petitions, the MLAs argued that since their resignations were submitted in person, there was no further need for the Speaker to assess whether it was voluntary.
The Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed their petition to be heard along the petitions filed by 10 other rebel MLAs on Tuesday. The dissident MLAs claimed that Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar was acting in a biased manner.
However, the bench led by CJI will also hear a petition filed by Karnataka Youth Congress Secretary Anil Chacko Joseph and others who also approached the top court pleading to intervene in the ongoing case claiming that the resignation of these 10 rebel MLAs was to be treated as defections.
Till, Monday afternoon there have been no signs of reconciliation between the rebels and their parties with those holed up in the Mumbai hotel writing to Mumbai police seeking security in the light of rumours suggesting top leaders of the Congress party may pay them a visit.
The numbers are stacked up against the ruling coalition with BJP leading with a 107, and the coalition stuck at 101.