By Manisha Natarajan Jul 17, 2019 8:27:53 PM IST (Published)
The survival of the 14-month-old Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka hangs precariously with the Supreme Court on Wednesday holding that the 15 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs cannot be compelled to participate in the proceedings of the ongoing Assembly session.
The survival of the 14-month-old Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka hangs precariously on the eve of the trust vote with the Supreme Court on Wednesday holding that the 15 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs cannot be compelled to participate in the proceedings of the ongoing Assembly session.
As the court order virtually sounded the death knell for chief minister H D Kumaraswamy in the battle for numbers on the floor of the House, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi in its order at the same time gave Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar the freedom to decide on the resignation of the 15 MLAs within such time-frame as considered appropriate by him.
Locked in an intense face-off with rebel MLAs whose resignation he has refused to accept that would have led to the collapse of the government after being reduced to a minority, Speaker Kumar welcomed the court decision and said he would conduct himself responsibly in accordance with the principles of the Constitution.
Hailing the decision, the rebel MLAs camping in Mumbai said there was no question of going back on their resignations from the Assembly or attending the session while Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa said Kumaraswamy will have to resign Thursday when he faces the confidence vote in the Assembly since he has no majority.
To discuss this, CNBC-TV18's Manisha Natarajan spoke with V Ravichandar, an Urbanist; Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy; Srinivasan Gopalan, CEO of Ozone Group and Juggy Marwaha, executive managing director at JLL India.