Bengaluru, Jul 22: Beleaguered Congress-JD(S) coalition on Monday sought two more days times for the trust vote business in the Assembly but the Speaker said there was a need to complete proceedings today.
As the ruling Congress-JD(S) appeared to be involved in efforts to prolong the debate, Chief Ministrer H D Kumaraswamy and KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and informally sought two more days time to complete the business of confidence motion saying there were some crucial issues that have to be sorted out by the Supreme Court before the vote is taken.
Rao told the media that the ruling coalition was not afraid of losing power if it the numbers were not there but issues crucial to democracy like MLAs being held in captivity and change of government at the whims of some people should be sorted out first.
He thanked the Speaker for saying that the parties were free to issue whip to its members on the confidence vote as the apex court had not said anything specific on the issue.
The court's remarks that the rebel MLAs cannot be forced to participate in the proceedings applied to someone else and not to parties like the Congress and JD(S).
However, the Speaker repeatedly told members that they had given a commitment on Friday that voting should be completed today and it has to be honoured. "Please rescue me," he told members.
"Each member will speak only for 10 minutes. Don't make me say this again and again," he said at one point of time.
On another occasion, the Speaker interrupted Congress member Eashwar Khandre's speech while asking him to "conclude and to give a chance to first time MLAs."
"You are the party's working president. Next time, when you give membership, give it without looking at caste and bank balance. You filter there and send here. Rest I will take care," he told Khandre.
"If there is something new, then fine. The same special flights.. repetition. I am bored. How many of you go to the library here? Should I get the register? No reading, nothing. Where will you have something new to talk then?" the Speaker was heard saying.
He also took a dig at the politics of defection in Karnataka and quoted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to buttress his point.
"Somebody said to Pandit Nehru that Congress MLAs have become elopers. Nehru said it actually depends on the potency of the person if they are able to take away the person from this side. So, at one point you (Siddaramaiah) were potent and helped them elope. You (Yeddyurappa) don't smile, you also earlier helped in eloping," the Speaker said during the debate on confidence motion in the House.
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