In the latest development, Karnataka’s HD Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition government will face its trust vote on Thursday. this was decided at a meeting of the assembly’s business advisory panel.
The discussion on the vote of confidence will begin at 11 am on Thursday,” Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah announced.
Earlier, the Karnataka crisis had taken another twist when the 14 rebel MLAs wrote to the state police stating that they felt threatened from senior Karnataka and Maharashtra Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
According to sources, the MLAs have written to the senior police inspector, Mumbai’s Powai Police Station, stating, “we’ve absolutely no intentions in meeting Mallikarjun Kharge, GN Azad or any Congress dignitaries from Maharashtra and Karnataka or any political leader as we anticipate serious threat from them.”
The drama started when Congress leader DK Shivakumar came to Mumbai to meet the rebel lawmakers but was declined entry into the hotel that they had been staying in. After a day of high-octane drama, the Congress leader was sent back to Bengaluru.
Now, the rebels have again written to the police that they have no intention of meeting any congress leader. They also urged the police to provide protection to them.
“We the respected Members of Karnataka Assembly are currently staying at Renaissance Hotel Powai, would like to inform you that we have absolutely no intentions in meeting Shri Mallikarjun Kharge ji or Ghulam Nabi Azad ji or any Congress dignitaries or functionaries from Maharashtra and Karnataka Congress team leaders or any other political leaders. We anticipate serious threat from them. We hereby request you to kindly make necessary arrangements to stop these people from meeting us in case the situation arises,” the letter read.
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The legislators who have signed the letter are Shivram Hebbar, B.C. Patil, Mahesh K, Vishwanath, Muniratnam, Narayan Gowda, R Shankar, H Nagesh, Pratap Patil, Gopalaiah, Ramesh J, MTB Nagraj, Somshekar and Basavaraja.
On July 11, the dissident MLAs had returned to the Mumbai hotel after meeting Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar in Bengaluru.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Speaker to meet them. The Apex court had on July 12 ordered a status quo until July 16 on a plea filed by 10 dissident MLAs of Congress and JD(S) seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to accept their resignation and not proceed with the applications for their disqualification.
Meanwhile, a BJP delegation has met Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to persuade him to hold the trust vote in the House today. Assembly session will start at 12.30pm and BJP is likely to press for the resignation of chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.