In a last-ditch effort to save its shaky coalition government in Karnataka, Congress’ trouble-shooter and senior minister D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday assured the rebel legislators of meeting their demands if they withdrew their resignations and attend the Assembly session underway.

“The party is ready to meet demands of the rebels if they withdraw resignations and attend the session from Monday,” Shivakumar told reporters here even as state Housing Minister and rebel lawmaker M.T.B. Nagaraj flew to Mumbai to join the other rebels a day after assuring the party leaders of withdrawing his resignation.

Warning the rebels of action against them if they don’t withdraw their resignations and attend the session, Shivakumar said they would be disqualified if they defy the party whip issued to all its members, including them, for their presence in the Assembly.

“Presence of all the members in the Assembly is mandatory as the Finance Bill of the state budget for 2019-20 fiscal had to be passed in the session by July 26 and voting in favour of the confidence motion if moved by the chief minister (H.D. Kumaraswamy).

In all, 16 rebel legislators, including 13 from the Congress and three from its ally Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) resigned from their Assembly seats across the southern state for various reasons such as lack of development in their constituencies and loss of faith in the leadership.

“I am sure the rebels are well aware of the law. If they defy the whip by absenting from the House or vote against the confidence motion when moved, they will be disqualified and lose membership. The party is ready to settle their demands,” Shivakumar reiterated.

Alleging that the opposition BJP was engineering defections by forcing the legislators of the ruling allies to resign in return for money and ministerial posts in the event of it forming the government, Ashok said the people of the state have seen how its (BJP) leaders and members were coordinating the movements of the rebels and arranging their logistics to fly to Mumbai and other places during the last one week.

“The BJP leaders, however claim that their party was not involved in the resignations of rebels or their flight to Mumbai and Delhi and stay in hotels and resorts. At whose expense the opposition party is hosting them and why?” asked Shivakumar.

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered status quo with regard to the plea of the 10 Congress MLAs of Karnataka who approached it against the Assembly Speaker for not accepting their resignations.

After high-decibel arguments between advocates of the rebel legislators and the Speaker, a bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said the matter required a detailed hearing and listed it for Tuesday (July 16).

Till then, there would be status quo on the issue, the bench ruled.

“Various issues of interpretation of the constitutional provisions arise in this case…Question of judicial interference also comes up. It also needs to be examined if the Speaker needs to decide disqualification (of the rebel MLAs) first,” the court said.

During the course of the hearing, a high-decibel argument broke out in the courtroom.

Appearing for the rebel MLAs, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the Speaker could be given a day or two to decide, but he couldn’t challenge the authority of the apex court.

He contended that the top court should issue a contempt notice against the Speaker, as he was deliberately delaying the decision on the resignation of the MLAs despite its order.

The court yesterday asked the Speaker to take a decision on issue of resignations within a day.

The Chief Justice asked the counsels: “Is the Speaker challenging the authority of this court? …and is the Speaker saying Supreme Court should keep its hands off?”

To this, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the Karnataka Speaker, replied, “No.. He isn’t saying that.”

Singhvi submitted before the court that the Speaker is a very senior member of the Assembly and he will decide on the disqualification first, as he is duty-bound.

“The Speaker cannot be maligned and lampooned like this. He is a senior member and knows the Constitutional law,” contended Singhvi.

He also told the court that MLAs did not try to meet him earlier, and this information was not presented before the court.

Rohatgi said the Speaker had earlier accepted the resignation of one MLA even though disqualification proceedings were pending.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, described the plea filed by the MLAs as “an overtly political petition” and denied the allegations made against the CM in the petition by the MLAs.A Dhavan asked what exactly the MLAs wanted the court to do?

“They claim that the government has failed, and now, they want it to fail further. They have simply dragged the top court into this political battle,” he said.

Karnataka politics has become a never-ending drama of hide and seek. CM Kumaraswamy has made fresh allegations against the Modi-Shah duo. He says the BJP leaders have contacted and offered big money to their MLA if he helps in overthrowing the JDS-Congress government. What the BJP offered is not big money but unbelievably big money, which shows how unprincipled they are in their politicking.

Ever since forming the alliance government, Kumaraswamy has been spending tension-filled days. On the one hand, he has to take along with him all the Congress-JDS MLAs. On the other hand, there is the BJP constantly trying to win over rival MLAs to destabilise and oust the Kumaraswamy government. This created a kind of suspicious political atmosphere in the state wherein the ruling party leaders are forced to remain alert all the time.

Why is the BJP making such relentless efforts in Karnataka? The Modi-Shah duo think their party was defeated in the state just because of the combined efforts of all the rival parties including the support from TDP. Even then, the BJP became the single largest party there. The BJP still feels it should not leave any chance to weaken the ruling Congress-JDS coalition and that is very important ahead of the general election.

G.Ravikiran

In a rather surprising comment, union minister Prakash Javadekar predicted fall of JDU-Congress government soon and told there will be ‘political Dhamaka’ in the state. However, Karnataka CM retaliates his comments and told his government is as strong as rock.

Earlier, speaking to a news channel, Javadekar opined that “unholy alliance between the JD(S) and Congress set to fall soon. We were the single-largest party in Karnataka, but fell short of forming the government by just seven seats. The JD(S) and Congress are known for opportunistic politics and can never give a stable government in the state”. Another Union minister, DV Sadananda Gowda, also expressed similar opinion and told, “The government would collapse because of its internal rifts. We will have to wait and see if the upcoming Belagavi session is completed.”

However, Karnataka chief minister Kumaraswamy dismissed Prakash Javadekar’s comments that the Congress-JDS coalition government led by him in the state would fall any time. He retaliated him saying, his government is as strong as a rock.” But despite Kumar Swamy’s retaliating comments, there have been doubts among people that BJP is trying to destabilize Karnataka government.

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar died on Monday at a private hospital here due to multiple organ failure, a BJP spokesman said. He was 59.

“Kumar passed away at around 3 a.m. at Shankara Cancer Hospital three weeks after he was admitted on return from the US on October 21,” party’s state unit spokesman S. Shantaram told IANS.

The Karnataka government declared a three-day mourning across the state and one-day public holiday for Monday as a mark of respect.

The departed leader was also the Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister in the NDA-led government since May 2014.

A six-time parliamentarian from the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency since 1996, Ananth Kumar had been undergoing treatment for cancer in the UK and US since August.

“He first went to London after the monsoon session of Parliament in July-August and later shifted to a New York hospital.

“The cancer had spread to other parts of his body that resulted in his multi-organ failure and death,” said Shantaram.

The late Union Minister is survived by his widow Tejaswani, two daughters Aishwaraya and Vijayeta, younger brother Nand Kumar and younger sister Suhasini.

Kumar’s body was shifted to his residence and home-office at Basavangudi here.

“It will be kept in state at the National College grounds in Basavangudi for the public to pay homage till the last rites on Tuesday,” said the party official.

“The national flag will fly half-mast on public buildings across the state and all official engagements are cancelled till Wednesday,” the Congress-JD-S government here announced.

State and central government offices will remain closed on Monday as a tribute to Kumar, a state official told IANS.

The Karnataka Education Department declared holiday for all schools and colleges in the city on Monday as a mark of respect.

As news of Kumar’s demise spread across the city, hundreds of people, including party’s state unit leaders rushed to his residence to pay their last respects.

Several Bharatiya Janata Party’s leaders, including state unit chief B.S. Yeddyurappa and legislators R. Ashok and Suresh Kumar visited Kumar’s house and condoled his untimely death.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers and the party’s national leadership are expected to attend Kumar’s state funeral in the city on Tuesday,” Shantaram said.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Arun Jaitely, Nirmala Sitharaman and Nitin Gadkari mourned Kumar’s death and expressed condolence to the bereaved family.

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, cabinet ministers of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Congress coalition government joined BJP’s state unit leaders and cadres in condoling Ananth Kumar’s death.

Congress and TDP leaders in Twin Telugu states are celebrating the Bye-poll results in Karnataka. Senior TDP leader JC Diwakar Reddy says that Congress, TDP and other Mahakutami allies will get a similar victory in Telangana election next month.

The Karnataka verdict indeed came at a wrong time for TRS and BJP, as Mahakutami allies will now make renewed efforts with unity to throw KCR out of power. Diwakar Reddy says that TDP chief and AP CM Chandrababu Naidu met with Congress president Rahul Gandhi only to protect democracy by ousting PM Modi from power.

There’s a big necessity for the TDP to prefer alliance at the national level but this may not hold good to go for alliance with Congress in AP. Diwakar Reddy asserts that Mahakutami has received a big boost after Karnataka results. On its part, TDP will continue to mobilise all pro-Congress parties to oust BJP from power at the centre.

TDP is very angry over the Modi government taking an anti-AP stand over release of funds and non-fulfilment of bifurcation promises.

G.Ravikiran