Apex court directs Speaker not to compel rebel MLAs to participate in floor test

The protracted political crisis in Karnataka has taken an interesting and curious turn after the supreme court of India has in its judgement today made it amply clear by giving a free hand to rebel Congress, JD( S) and independent lawmakers of the southern state to act according to their wishes. The apex court has stated that they are not legally bound to participate in the floor test.

The apex court also directed the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha Speaker who has a major and justifiable role to play in this entire crisis, to not compel the dissident lawmakers to participate in the floor test scheduled for Thursday in the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha.

However, the apex court also said that the speaker is free to take a decision on the resignation letters of dissident MLAs submitted to him earlier, thus extending their support to the BJP.

The lawyer appearing for the dissident lawmakers has unambiguously said and pleaded before the apex court judges hearing the vexed matter, that the rebels would not be present in the Vidhan Soudha on Thursday during the floor test giving a clear indication about the current ruling government of Congress JD ( S) combine is in definite danger and likely to fall a day after.

It may be recalled that the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha has a total of 224 lawmakers including the speaker.

112 seats are required to have a simple majority and form the government. Earlier the total strength of the ruling government was 116 and that included 78 Congress MLAs, 37 JD (S) MLAs and one of BSP MLA.

Now since 14 MLAs of Kumaraswamy government have rebelled and resigned, they will not be present on Thursday in the assembly during the floor test.

This will reduce the total MLA strength to 207 and therefore the majority needed to form the government will come down to 104 MLAs.

This unambiguously means that the government of Congress and JD(S) will get the support of 100 odd lawmakers. On the other hand, the opposition BJP has 105 MLAs’ of its own plus the outright support of two independents, which clearly and transparently indicates that the saffron party has a credible chance to form a government.

This predicts the fall of the Kumaraswamy government. What’s your take friends?