Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has accepted the suggestion made by Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj to again prove his majority on the floor of the legislative assembly.
The chief minister’s office has sent a letter to Raj Bhavan, accepting the governor’s suggestion to seek a fresh trust vote. The House will be convened on October 14 at 11 am, as suggested by the governor.
On Tuesday afternoon, Bhardwaj asked Yeddyurappa to take the trust vote afresh on Thursday to prove his majority in the Assembly, as Monday’s outcome was carried by voice vote and the proceedings were nothing but a ‘farce’.
“I am prepared to give you another chance to prove your majority in case you are willing to do so (move the confidence motion again by 11 am on October 14),” the governor said in a letter to the chief minister a day after he recommended President’s Rule, as there was a ‘constitutional breakdown’ in the state.
The number of legislators supporting the motion and against it was not recorded, the letter said. As the number of members present and voting ‘ayes’ and ‘nos’ were not recorded, Bhardwaj said the verdict on the motion was carried by voice vote and the proceedings were reduced to a farce in the presence of uniformed police and amid ruckus in the House.
“A careful examination of the ad verbatim proceedings of the assembly on Monday showed that you made no serious effort to prove your majority on the floor of the House. Under the circumstances, it is incumbent upon you to demonstrate clearly and objectively in the assembly that you have the majority of the House,” the governor’s letter pointed out.
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Referring to his October 6 letter to Yeddyurappa, the governor said the purpose of summoning the house on Monday was to enable the chief minister to demonstrate he continued to have the support of the majority of the legislators.
“When the proceedings were held between 10:05 and 10:10 am, the House was not in order, with the presence of outsiders who were not entitled to be in the House. There were also complaints that people who were not members of the assembly were also raising their voice. The motion was disposed of in a split second,” the governor recalled.
The governor told reporters the fresh opportunity was not legally binding on the chief minister as it was only a gesture out of kindness and in the wake of serious objections raised by the legislators of the Opposition Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and independents.
“My advice to the chief minister is a friendly gesture. Though it will be unprecedented to hold a trust-vote again within days after it was held. There is no such provision in the Constitution. It is a question of morality and upholding probity in public life,” Bhardwaj said at a hurriedly called press conference at Raj Bhavan.
Asserting he had requested the chief minister to prove the majority keeping in view the Supreme Court ruling in the S R Bommai versus Union of India case, the governor said a free and fair floor test was considered the best way to test the majority of the government in the House.
Bommai was the chief minister of Karnataka from August 13, 1988, to April 21, 1989, and his government was dismissed by the then governor, P Venkatsubbaiah, after a dozen legislators of the then ruling Janata Dal withdrew support.
When asked about his report to the Centre recommending the imposition of President’s rule in the state, Bhardwaj merely said it was based on the proceedings in the House yesterday. He also observed this was not the first time the Yeddyurappa government was in trouble and said the Reddy brothers had “hijacked” 50 MLAs on an earlier occasion.
“The chief minister was in tears... I had sympathy for him. I have fully cooperated with the chief minister on all matters,” he said, rejecting Yeddyurappa’s charge that he was not fair to his government.
Meanwhile, the high court has reserved orders on the disqualification of rebel BJP MLAs. The bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N Kumar continued to hear arguments today. The counsels for the MLAs, P P Rao, and for the government, Soli J Sorabjee, presented their arguments.
As for the five independent MLAs, the bench has posted the hearing to October 18. When the prosecution counsel pointed out a technical error in their writ petition, the counsel for the independent MLAs sought permisssion the high court permission to resubmit the joint writ petition in a day or two. The chief justice accepted their request and posted the hearing to next Monday.