Courtesy SC order, the whip too can’t save a sinking ship in Karnataka

Bengaluru, July 17: With the Supreme Court delivering its verdict, the rebel MLAs are at liberty to abstain from the trust vote proceedings to be held in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Thursday at 11 am.

As a result of the SC verdict, the MLAs cannot be compelled to attend the House. This would mean a whip issued by the JD(S) or Congress compelling them to be present will not be applicable.

The BJP's Narasimha Rao, while hailing the verdict said that the court has given relief to the MLAs they were hoping for. The many whips issued by the Congress or JD(S) will not affect the MLAs.

The Supreme Court had left it to the discretion of the 15 rebel MLAs on whether they would want to attend the trust vote proceedings in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly tomorrow.

It may be recalled at the time the arguments closed on Tuesday, the rebels represented by their advocate Mukul Rohatgi had urged the court to pass an order, which would not make it mandatory for them to attend the proceedings.

Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the rebel MLAs urged the court to exempt the 15 lawmakers from appearing in the assembly on Thursday. We have a fundamental right to resign, he maintained. The H D Kumaraswamy government faces a crucial trust vote at 11 am on Thursday.

If these rebels abstain, then there is trouble for the Kumaraswamy government. In the event of these rebels abstaining, in all likelihood the government will collapse.