New Delhi: Karnataka’s rebel lawmakers on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that their resignations must be accepted by the Speaker, that they could not be “forced to attend the assembly”. The court was hearing the case of 15 lawmakers of the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition whose resignations, if accepted, will leave the government in a minority.
“Is there any evidence of a gun being pointed at their temple,” former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, representing the rebels, questioned as he refuted that any coercion was involved. “When I don’t want to attend the assembly, can I be forced to do so? The Speaker is coercing (us) to continue, to sit and speak in a particular group of which we don’t want to be a part of,” Rohatgi said.
“This government is in a minority and that’s simple math.”
The rebels requested the Supreme Court – whom they described as partisan – give the Speaker a time-frame to decide on the resignations. “The Speaker is being partisan. MLAs (legislators) are not bureaucrats or public servants… they don’t have to give reasons for their resignation,” the dissidents argued.
Sixteen legislators of the JDS-Congress coalition and two independent lawmakers have resigned.
If the resignations are accepted, the coalition’s 118 members will come down to 100 and the majority mark will drop from 113 to 105. The BJP has 105 members and the support of the two Independents, which would take its tally to 107.
The Speaker had last week told the court that he would need time to examine the resignations and determine whether they were coerced or voluntary. He had also claimed that many of the rebels face disqualification.
The court said it had to see whether there is a Constitutional obligation for the Speaker to accept a member’s resignation or to disqualify first.
“Irrespective of disqualification proceedings against a lawmaker, if he wants to resign, he should be allowed to,” Mr Rohatgi said.
The Speaker, he asserted, could be directed to decide on the resignations by 2 pm and he could take a call on disqualification later.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Speaker, said the arguments were “factually wrong” and the exercise of “date or speed or the race between disqualification and resignation was incorrect.
The coalition has decided to take a floor test this Thursday, a move seen as a last-ditch attempt to save the teetering coalition that came to power last May after an election that gave no clear majority to any party.
Congress troubleshooter DK Shivakumar and other coalition leaders have been frantically trying to win back the rebels, who are holed up in a hotel in Mumbai.
The BJP says the coalition government must resign because it has “lost its moral authority to rule.” The party has been accused by the Congress and the JDS of crafting the crisis to try and seize power in Karnataka, more than a year after it fell short of a majority in state polls.
