New Delhi, Jul 18: Karnataka assembly on Thursday witnessed high drama as speaker K R Ramesh Kumar ignored a missive from governor Vajubhai Vala to "hold trust vote by the end of the day" on the confidence motion moved by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
The House was adjourned by deputy speaker Krishna Reddy without voting on the confidence motion as the ruling coalition members accused the BJP of kidnapping its MLAs and persistently shouted slogans during the debate.
Ahead of the adjournment, the BJP declared that its members would stay in House all night till the time the trust vote was decided.
The day's proceedings started with Kumaraswamy moving a one-line motion, saying the House expressed confidence in the 14-month old ministry headed by him.
This despite the fact that the fate of his government hanged in balance caused by the en masse resignation of 16 ruling coalition MLAs.
The trial of strength was taking place in the backdrop of Supreme Court ruling that the rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs "ought not" to be compelled to participate in the proceedings of the ongoing session of the state assembly.
Armed with the court order, the rebel MLAs camping in Mumbai had made it clear that they would not attend the assembly proceedings.
A total of 20 lawmakers did not turn up Thursday, including 17 from the ruling coalition, as the House debated in a surcharged atmosphere with two adjournments amid pandemonium.
Sensing an alleged attempt to delay the vote, the BJP rushed a delegation to meet Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala and complained that the ruling coalition was trying to prolong the debate to buy time to shore up numbers.
The governor took note of the BJP's concerns and sent a missive to the assembly speaker to complete the process of vote of confidence by the end of the day.
In his message, Vala said, "The motion of confidence moved by the chief minister of Karnataka is in consideration before the House today. The chief minister is expected to maintain the confidence of the House at all times during his tenure. I, therefore, send this message to the House to consider completing the proceedings of the House by the end of the day."
Vala's message under Article 175 of the constitution added that completing the proceedings by the end of the way will uphold the highest traditions of democracy and parliamentary practice.
The speaker read out the message and said "I have brought it to the notice of the House."
However, the missive was ignored and the assembly was adjourned till Friday without any voting.
Before the House was adjourned, BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa declared that his party members would stay put in the House itself overnight and even till the time the trust vote was decided.
"We will stay until the trust vote is decided," Yeddyurappa declared.
He said the confidence motion was not even discussed properly for 15 minutes and other issues were brought in by the ruling coalition members to delay the trust vote.
"There has been a breach of constitutional framework," he said, adding that it was unparalleled.
"To protest against this, we will sleep here itself," Yeddyurappa said.
The drama in the assembly unfolded right from the word go as another Congress MLA Shreemant Patil was not seen in the House, amid reports he has been admitted in a Mumbai hospital.
At one point, Congress members carrying pictures of Patil trooped into the well of the House shouting slogans "Down Down BJP" and "down down operation Kamala (lotus)" to bring down the government.
The House was rocked by trading of charges after the Congress alleged that its MLA Shreemant Patil, who suddenly disappeared after being with them at a resort and went incommunicado, had been 'kidnapped' as part of efforts to 'topple' the coalition government.
The Congress MLAs said in unison that the lawmakers were living in fear and Patil was kidnapped, kept in a room, taken by a special flight and then admitted to a hospital.
Senior minister D K Shivakumar said they would produce documents to show that Patil was forcibly admitted to the hospital to skip assembly.
BJP members made their displeasure known several times over alleged delay in taking up the voting on the confidence motion, which at one point led to heated exchanges between the speaker and senior BJP member Madhuswamy, leading to adjournment of the House for half an hour.
BSP MLA Mahesh, on whose support the coalition was counting, also did not show up, amid reports he was keeping away as he has not received any directions from party leader Mayawati on the stand to be taken on the trust vote.
As the chief minister sought the trust vote, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah pressed for deferring the confidence motion till the assembly speaker decided on the issue of whip in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on the political crisis in the state.
Siddaramaiah said the 15 rebel MLAs were influenced by the apex court order that they can abstain from attending the assembly proceedings and asked speaker to give a ruling on the fate of whip issued by him as CLP leader.
"If this motion is taken up, then it will not be constitutional. It violates the constitutional provisions. I request you to defer it. I want your ruling on this point of order," Siddaramaiah told Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.
The speaker then said he would consult the advocate general and adjourned the House for lunch.
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