As Governor Vajubhai R. Vala set two deadlines for the H.D. Kumaraswamy government to conduct the floor test — first one by 1.30 p.m. on Friday and the second by the end of the same day — the governing Congress and JD(S) coalition launched a long debate questioning his “interference” in the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly.
The Chief Minister took exception to the Governor’s letter and said, “The Governor cannot act as an ombudsman of the legislature.” After reading out parts of the second letter by the Governor asking him to complete the floor test by the end of the day, he termed it, “Second love letter from the Raj Bhavan to the State government”.
Mr. Vala said in the letter, “I am receiving various reports about the attempts being made for horse-trading. This can be averted only and only if the exercise of conducting the floor test is conducted at the earliest and without any delay.”
Leader of the Opposition B.S. Yeddyurappa in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Referring to Mr. Vala’s concerns over “horse-trading”, he mockingly said the Governor had finally opened his eyes to horse-trading of MLAs. Taking forward the debate on the Governor’s role, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda referred at length the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench ruling on the Governor’s role during political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh. He argued that the Governor could not set such deadlines once the Chief Minister has moved the confidence motion after which it was a property of the House and the Governor cannot interfere. “In your [BJP] greed for power, you are misusing entire constitutional machinery. You need not teach us a lesson” Mr. Gowda told the BJP members when the latter contested his arguments.
Amid slogans of “Go back Governor”, and “Governor is acting like a BJP agent” by members of the governing parties, Mr. Gowda said, “Why has the Governor given a 15-hour deadline to prove the majority in the House when the same Governor had given 15 days to BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa to prove his majority soon after the election results in 2018?” Echoing the same view, Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande said, “Never in the history the Governor had set a deadline of 15 hours to seek the trust vote.”
BJP’s counter
The BJP, however, vehemently countered the government’s arguments. Senior BJP member J.C. Madhuswamy argued that the Governor had administered the oath of office to the Chief Minister and installed the government, and he had every constitutional right to direct the Chief Minister to prove majority any time. Since the legislature session was on, the Governor directed the Chief Minister to seek the trust vote at the earliest, he said, arguing that the Governor had only directed the Chief Minister and had not interfered in the business of the House. BJP legislator Basavaraj Bommai said the Governor had powers to direct the government to seek a trust vote when he was in doubt about the majority enjoyed by it in the House.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, Leader of the Opposition, made two interventions — once at 1.30 p.m. as the first deadline passed and later by the end of the day when he appealed to Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar to respect the Governor’s directions and put the motion to vote. The Speaker rejected the Opposition’s plea and said the procedure on confidence motion had to be followed only after completion of the debate. “I am not perturbed by the Governor’s letter to the Chief Minister,” Mr. Ramesh Kumar said.
Kumaraswamy’s appeal
Mr. Kumaraswamy appealed to the Speaker to adjourn the House till Monday, as many legislators wanted to speak on the motion and assured him that the treasury benches would fully cooperate with him to conclude the debate and put the motion to vote on that day. Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah also made the same appeal.
After a protracted argument, the House was adjourned till Monday, with an assurance from the Chief Minister and the CLP leader that they would not try to push the debate beyond and voting would take place on Monday.
