With liberty granted to rebels, SC spells trouble for Kumaraswamy government

Bengaluru, July 17: The Supreme Court has 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.