Karnataka Speaker receives resignations but buys time to decide

ImageSource:hindustantimes.com

KR Rameshkumar, Speaker of the state Assembly today adhered to the directions of the Supreme Court by receiving the resignations of the dissident MLAs' belonging to both, Indian National Congress(INC) and Janata Dal-Secular(JDS) ruling parties. However he parried queries over any time frame for either accepting or rejecting the same thus giving a go ahead to the prevailing piquant political situation.

Now it looks that the sword of acting against all the disgruntled legislators are more bright with the weapon like disqualification as all the rebel legislators have returned back to Mumbai while the Monsoon session is set to begin from tomorrow.

The finance bill is being presented tomorrow on the very maiden day of the session and whips have been issued by both the ruling parties to the members to be present in the house without fail and failure to do so is enough to act to disqualify such erring members.On the other hand all the disgruntled Members of the state Legislature Assembly(MLAs) literally came running to reach the Assembly Speaker's office to submit their resignations in person during the last minute.

This rush was inevitable following the directions of the Supreme Court during the earlier part of the day directing all the dissident legislators to present themselves before the Speaker and submit the resignation letters in person before 6 pm today.All the six Congress and three JD-S dissident legislators arrived from Mumbai in a chartered flight and the police had ensured zero traffic for their smooth arrival to the Vidhana Soudha without any hassles.

ImageSource:hindustantimes.com

Soon after submitting the resignation letters in the prescribed format and answering to the queries of the Speaker, all of them rushed back to the HAL airport to return to Mumbai.KR Rameshkumar, Speaker soon after meeting the legislators told a media conference that there was no delay in receiving the resignations as projected in a section of the press. He claimed of not being informed before the dissident legislators made a bee line to his office on Saturday 06 July.

The next day was a holiday for being Sunday and as per his tour program he was on personal tour on Monday. But I returned to the office on Tuesday and found that only eight of the 13 resignations were in accordance with the requisite rules and the same was informed to them. So where's the delay, he hit back to persistent queries on the subject.

He also lamented that in spite of being very much in the city and available in office an impression was created in the mainstream media that he was delaying the process of accepting the resignations.
But if one were to hear his prolonged preface before the media conference and his arguments and counter questions later it looks he is bent upon taking his own sweet time to act on the resignations submitted to him.But what's intriguing is the absolute dumb strategy of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in never demanding a floor test of the HD Kumaraswamy government to prove the majority and it's also the same case with the Governor Vajubhai Vala, who till date has failed to instruct the chief minister to prove his majority due to the changed circumstances.

One thing is for sure, whether the Speaker accepts the resignations or not and even if the INC-JDS disqualify their members for violating the whip the ruling parties are bound to lose their present strength and will be reduced to a minority government.But the paradoxical melodrama in the present context is such that even after knowing very well the ultimate outcome of such counter strategy the ruling parties and Speaker appear to have their own way!

-Manohar Yadavatti