With just 101 in a 209 member House, why Karnataka Govt stares at a collapse

Bengaluru, July 17: The Supreme Court ruling has given the rebel MLAs the right to either abstain or take part in the assembly proceedings tomorrow. The Kumaraswamy led government faces a trust vote tomorrow.

Going by the current numbers, the JD(S) and Congress have 37 and 78 MLAs respectively. The total strength stands at 117. There is one MLA from the Bahujan Samaj Party. There are 225 members of which one is nominated.

Now, 16 MLAs have resigned of which 13 are from the Congress, while 3 are from the JD(S).Whether their resignations are accepted or they are disqualified, the strength of the House comes down. If the rebels abstain, the strength of the House would come down and the ruling coalition would have just 101 lawmakers. If the rebels abstain the strength of the House is down to 2019 and the magic number would be 105.

The BJP on its own has 105 MLAs. It also has the support of 2 independent MLAs and this takes it strength up to 107.

The Supreme Court had earlier said that 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.