Opposition leader Siddaramaiah in Karnataka Siddaramaiah gives notice of ‘no confidence’
Bengaluru:
Signaling another political fight, an opinion from the opposition Congress expressing distrust of the BJP government led by BS Yediyurappa in Karnataka was admitted today by Legislative Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri.
The President, after ensuring that the opinion submitted by Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah had the support of the 23 lawmakers required under the rules, admitted it and said he would set an appropriate time for the motion to censorship and discussion in the coming days. .
The ruling BJP called Congress’ decision a “political gimmick” and said the opposition party lacked numbers.
As the House convened after a short break after paying obituaries to Union Minister of State Suresh Angadi, who died last night from COVID-19, Siddaramaiah informed the President of the notice that he had submitted this morning with his party colleagues.
“We have given notice that this House and the people of the state have lost faith in the Yediyurappa government,” Siddaramaiah said, saying the opinion had the support of over 23 lawmakers as per the rules.
Thereafter, all congressional lawmakers stood in their places to support the no-confidence opinion.
President Kageri then said he was confident the opinion had the support of more than 23 MPs and would decide and set the time for the no-confidence motion and discussion on Friday or Saturday.
Mr Siddaramaiah, while stating that he was not questioning the discretionary power of the President, asked the President to allow the motion of censure on priority and immediately bring it up for discussion.
However, the Speaker proceeded with the next route on the agenda – the tabling of certain bills.
Opposing this, Mr Siddaramaiah said: “When this government lost our confidence, how can they continue with all these legislative processes, they have no moral rights and they should come out.”
Against this, Revenue Minister R Ashoka said the government had not lost confidence or the majority just because Congress said so.
“They (Congress) don’t have numbers or a mandate. People (deputies) of Congress have come to our side, do not know how many more people will come to our side.
Reports say many are ready to come, ”he said, calling the law a no-confidence motion“ political stuff ”.
Mr Siddaramaiah countered that many members of the ruling party could vote in favor of the no-confidence motion if it is put to a vote.
Mr Ashoka responded by saying he was also confident that lawmakers from the benches of Congress would vote in favor of the government.
While BJP main deputy and former chairman KG Bopaiah stressed that the no-confidence motion cannot be taken immediately and can be taken within three days of notification, Chairman Kageri said he would fix the time for discussions in the next two days.
Earlier after the congressional legislature party meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah claimed that the government had failed on all fronts and the people of the state and the assembly had lost confidence in it because corruption was rampant, development was slowing down and the state’s financial situation had deteriorated.
Alleging that Mr. Yediyurappa and members of his family were involved in corruption, he said that there was also corruption in the purchase of medical equipment, laptops, transfers, allocation of positions for civil servants, grant making, among others.
He also claimed that the government was introducing several anti-popular laws such as amendments to the APMC and the Land Reform Law as well as some labor laws, among others.
The administration was anti-people and involved in corruption, Siddaramaiah alleged.
He said that this government came to power a year and four months ago and that it pushed the state into debt, when development was zero.
After Mr. Yediyirappa came to power, a loan of Rs 1.01,000 crore was taken out, he said.
“We therefore gave an opinion for the motion of censure …”, he added.
Alleging that this government was full of corruption and that no government had such a bad reputation in such a short time, KPCC chief DK Shivakumar said he was not worried about the numbers because he wanted to raise problems.
“There is a lot of infighting within the BJP, let’s see what happens ..” he said when asked if internal differences within the BJP would help Congress.
In the 225-member assembly, the ruling BJP has 116 members, Congress 67, JD (S) 33, BSP and nominee 1, independents 2 and the President (he has a casting vote).
Four seats – Sira, Basavakalyan, RR Nagar and Maski are vacant.
While Sira and Basavakalyan recently fell vacant following the deaths of sitting MPs, RR Nagar and Maski have been vacant for some time now due to election petitions pending before the Karnataka High Court.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
