Bangalore, June 3
Election of the Karnataka Assembly Speaker on June 5 could become a show of strength between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress and make the trust vote scheduled for the following day only a formality.
KPCC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, today told the TNS that the Congress legislature party was not averse to putting up a candidate for the Speaker’s post in the elections slated to take place on Thursday.
The Congress has 80 members in the 224-member Assembly. The other opposition party, Janata Dal (Secular), has 28 members. The two opposition parties, thus, command sway over a total 108 legislators, only two less than the 110-member BJP. It is the support of the six Independent MLAs that has turned the scales in favour of the BJP in the House. Support of only four Independent MLAs to an opposition candidate will put the ruling party and the opposition on an even footing. However, with five out the six Independent MLAs inducted by the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa as cabinet ministers, it will not be an easy job for the opposition to make inroads into the Independent MLAs’ support to the government.
Kharge said the aspect of coordination with the JD(S) for putting up a candidate for the Speaker’s election would be discussed in the CLP meeting to be held after the oath-taking of the MLAs in the Assembly tomorrow. Jagadish Shettar, BJP legislator and a former revenue minister of Karnataka, had at first refused to become Speaker of the Assembly. He has, however, fallen in line now following pressure put on him by the party’s central leadership. Shettar, it is learnt, will be ruling party’s candidate for the Speaker’s post.
While the party leadership came to the aid of the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa to snuff out the banner of revolt raised by Shettar, Yeddyurappa today also managed to resolve the issue of getting the Governor to address the legislature.
Governor Rameshwar Thakur was at first insisting that Yeddyurappa must first prove his majority in the Assembly and only then would he give his customary address to the joint session of the legislature. The CM met the Governor this morning to discuss the impasse. It has been decided now that the Governor will first address the joint session of the House on Friday (June 6) and the trust vote will then follow.
