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Anil Urs On another day of high drama, fair-weather friends JD(S) and the Congress accused the BJP of abducting one of their legislators, and of threatening some others with I-T raids if they did not vote for Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa in the floor test on Saturday.
The JD(S)-Congress combine, which had transported its legislators to Hyderabad, is brining them back to Bengaluru following the Supreme Court asking Yeddyurappa to prove his majority on the floor of the House at 4 pm on Saturday.
Various permutations are in the works, with both the Congress-JD(S) and the BJP claiming that their respective parties/alliance will be able to prove their majority.
In another decision that immediately ran into controversy, Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala appointed BJP leader and three-time MLA G Bopaiah as pro-tem speaker. Protocol demands that the senior-most legislator, in this case, the 71-year-old Congressman RV Deshpande, be given the post.
The Congress-JD(S) alliance has challenged Bopaiah’s appointment in the Supreme Court, saying it violates every constitutional tradition and parliamentary practice.
“This is the third ‘encounter’ on the Constitution committed by Vajubhai Vala at the instance of Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah. We know that for Vajubhai Vala, the vajud (existence) of the BJP is far bigger than the vajud of the Constitution,” said Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Bopaiah is a close associate of Yeddyurappa. In October 2010, he had disqualified 11 rebel BJP legislators and five independents after they had objected to the continuation of the Yeddyurappa government following the illegal mining scam. The Supreme Court later quashed his decision.
Meanwhile, former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah told reporters party MLA Anand Singh had been abducted and kept in wrongful confinement by the BJP. Singh was threatened with CBI and ED raids, he added.
The Karnataka Congress Legislature Party, which met in Hyderabad, has unanimously elected Siddaramaiah as its leader.
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