Kumaraswamy govt in Karnataka falls, BJP calls it 'victory of democracy'
The wobbly Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy in Karnataka collapsed yesterday evening after a turbulent 14 months after failing the floor test in the Assembly.
The government got only 99 votes against 105 for the BJP. Twenty MLAs, including two independents, 15 rebels and the lone BSP member, stayed away from the vote on the confidence motion. The BSP MLA was promptly expelled from the party by Mayawati for ignoring her directive to vote for the ruling coalition.
The trust vote was occasioned by the resignation of 13 Congress and three JD(S) MLAs and the withdrawal of support by two independent MLAs over a fortnight.
The trust vote, pending since Friday, was held on Tuesday evening after a week-long back and forth between the Speaker, the coalition and the BJP — and prodding from Governor Vajubhai Vala. The defeat of the coalition government brought an end to the 18-day drama that started with resignations of two MLAs and soon grew into a flood with 14 more following suit, leaving the government in a minority.
BJP dubbed it a "Game of Karma". "It's the victory of people of Karnataka. It's the end of an era of corrupt & unholy alliance. We promise a stable & able governance to the people of Karnataka," the state BJP tweeted.
State BJP president and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa called the defeat of the government a "victory of democracy".
"People were fed up with Kumaraswamy government. I want to assure people of Karnataka that a new era of development will start now," said Yeddyurappa who is set to be the chief minister for the fourth time.
But while the 76-year-old Yeddyurappa can't wait to take oath as CM, the BJP leadership is in no hurry.
After losing the floor test, Kumaraswamy drove to the Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation to governor Vajubhai R Vala around 8.40pm. Vala asked Kumaraswamy to continue in office till alternative arrangements are made.
The tussle between the ruling coalition and the BJP in the run up to the trust vote had even reached the Supreme Court. The debate on the confidence motion extended over Monday and Tuesday despite Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar's Monday deadline. Ahead of Tuesday's session, the Speaker, seeing near empty treasury benches in the assembly, commented: "Should this be the fate of the Speaker or the assembly? You will lose credibility, leave alone strength," he said.
Last Friday, a trust vote could not be held despite two deadlines from the Governor. The house was adjourned after marathon speeches by Kumaraswamy and other coalition leaders. The BJP accused the government of delaying the trust vote with lengthy speeches in hope of reprieve from the Supreme Court.
Responding to the debate on Tuesday evening, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy — who has already handed his resignation to the Governor — said he was "not particularly worried about the end of this debate" and that he would "happily give up… rather than all this". "I have acted with decency. The last 14 months has been – 'will they stay or will they go' – and I thank my party leaders for staying through it all," he added.
The Congress slammed the BJP for "unscrupulous political horse trading" and said it was a "moral victory" for itself, promising to hold nationwide protests against the "immoral, blatant and brazen political destabilization".
The Congress and HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal Secular had tied up last May when the counting of votes in the assembly elections indicated a hung verdict with the BJP emerging as the single largest party.
The BJP called their alliance "political opportunism". It predicted that the government will collapse after the national elections. In May, the party scooped up 26 of the state's 28 Lok Sabha seats while the alliance got only two. Earlier this month, 16 legislators – 13 from the Congress and three from JDS – resigned and two independent legislators withdrew support to the coalition government.
Both Kumaraswamy and Congress's Siddaramaiah said the rebels will be punished.
"I would like to reaffirm that those who have fallen for Operation Kamala will never be inducted back to our party," Siddaramaiah tweeted. Another tweet read: "15-16 of our MLAs violated the whip by abstaining from the House during trust vote, thereby, it is a clear violation of Schedule 10 (of the Constitution) and attracts disqualification."
Both Congress and JD(S) have moved disqualification petitions before speaker KR Ramesh Kumar and the process is expected to get on track once Supreme Court decides on the issue. On Tuesday, the apex court said it would wait and watch before deciding on the pleas linked to the trust vote and issue of party whips.
Thirteen of the rebel lawmakers have written to the Speaker asking for more time to meet him over a disqualification notice against them. "You are aware that the Disqualification Rule, 1986, requires a minimum of 7 days period. In spite of the same, the proceedings are being hurried up. In these circumstances, I request you to grant four weeks' time to appear," the letter read, according to news agency ANI.
The speaker has so far reserved his decision.
Related Topics:BJPBS Yeddyurappacoalition governmentCongressGOVERNORHD KumaraswamyJanata Dal (Secular)JD(S)Karnataka governmentKR Ramesh KumarRebel MlasSiddaramaiahSpeakerVajubhai R Vala
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shared a loving moment is Kashmir's Srinagar city as the brother-sister duo enjoyed a playful snowball fight ahead of mega rally scheduled to conclude the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
In videos and pictures posted on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi is seen grabbing fistfuls of snow and dumping them on Priyanka's head as the siblings enjoy the snowfall in Srinagar city. The videos and pictures have gone viral on social media.
Sheen Mubarak!😊
A beautiful last morning at the #BharatJodoYatra campsite, in Srinagar.❤️ ❄️ pic.twitter.com/rRKe0iWZJ9
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 30, 2023
Other pictures show Priyanka and Rahul play-fighting and hurling snow at each other as Congress workers look on.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress national general secretary joined his brother on the last leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir on Saturday.
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Gandhi's marathon trek concluded with the unfurling of the national flag at Srinagar's Lal Chowk on Sunday and a mega rally is scheduled today before the Wayanad MP wraps up his yatra.
The former summer capital of the erstwhile state was sealed in view of the yatra and movement of common citizens was restricted, police had said on Sunday.
Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior Congress leaders, resumed the march from Pantha Chowk at 11 am and reached Lal Chowk around noon where Gandhi hoisted the tricolour.
Earlier, Congress had temporarily halted the march on Friday, January 27, near Qazigund, the gateway to Kashmir valley, due to an alleged breach of security and mismanagement of crowd by the erstwhile state's administration.
Congress leaders alleged that Rahul Gandhi after crossing Qazigund, started his march towards south Kashmir's Vessu, but the party workers noticed that the outer cordon maintained by the Jammu and Kashmir police, was lifted all of a sudden.
However, the J&K Police has refuted the allegations of a security lapse. In a series of tweets, the police claimed that organizers of the march had not told them that such a large gathering would be joining them from Banihal and full security arrangements were in place and deployments were done as per SOPs.
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BJP's Central Election Committee made the announcement on Sunday. This came a day after Congress announced the name of its candidate for Agartala. Congress named Sudip Roy Barman as its candidate for Agartala.
Bharatiya Janata Party names Papiya Datta as the party candidate from Agartala for the upcoming Tripura Assembly elections pic.twitter.com/jpRaFPoMZ9
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2023
Both parties the BJP and the Congress have announced their candidates for the Tripura assembly polls on Saturday with the state set for a multi-cornered contest in the February 16 election for 60 seats in the state assembly.
Congress announced 17 candidates, while the Bharatiya Janata Party published two lists with 48 and six candidates, respectively. Additionally, the agreement between the BJP and IPFT was confirmed. Five seats are up for election by IPFT.
Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik, a candidate for the BJP, is from Dhanpur. The party has not offered tickets to six of its incumbent MLAs for the 2019 elections.
The MLAs that were refused tickets include Vimmi Majumdar, Subhash Chandra Das, Arun Chandra Bhowmik, Virendra Kishore Dev Burman, Parimal Debbarma, and Viplav Kumar.
The state assembly elections are coming up, and the incumbent chief minister Dr. Manik Saha will run from the Town Bordowali district.
Tripura, which was seen as a bastion of the Left parties, saw the BJP in office for the first time in 2018.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and party chief JP Nadda were among those present at the Bharatiya Janata Party Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on January 27.
The nomination period ends on January 30. The voting will take place on March 2.
Nine states, as well as possibly the Union Territory of J&K, will have assembly elections in 2023. Given that there will be Lok Sabha elections in 2024, these elections are more significant.
The tone and atmosphere of the major conflict will be established by these state polls. For instance, if the BJP loses in several states, it will inspire the opposition and make it clearer whose leaders have the most negotiating leverage to be prime ministerial contenders.
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Samajwadi Party's national president Akhilesh Yadav has announced the national executive after three months. Kiranmoy Nanda on the post of Vice President and Professor Ramgopal Yadav on the post of Chief General Secretary are intact. Both of them were on the same post earlier also.
14 General Secretaries have been made in the National Executive. This includes Mohammad Azam Khan, Shivpal Singh Yadav, Swami Prasad Maurya, Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Awadhesh Prasad, Indrajit Verma, Madhu Gupta etc. In the 62-member National Executive, full care has been taken of the caste equation.
Abhishek Mishra, Pawan Pandey have also got a place in the National Executive. Similarly, former ministers Ram Asare Vishwakarma, Lilavati Kushwaha, Dharmendra Yadav, Javed Abdi, Dayaram Pal etc. have also been included.
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