Congress-JDS govt to face floor test on July 18: Speaker

Bengaluru/New Delhi/Mumbai: The tottering Congress-JDS government in Karnataka led by H D Kumaraswamy will face the floor test in the assembly on July 18, that would end suspense over the numbers game triggered by a raft of resignations by the ruling coalition lawmakers.

As the political turmoil lingered on with the ruling coalition making frenetic efforts to win back rebels who have pushed it to the brink of collapse, Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Monday announced the confidence motion sought to be moved by Kumaraswamy would be taken up at 11 am on July 18.

The date has been fixed after consulting both the opposition and ruling coalition leaders at the Business Advisory Commitee (BAC) meeting, Kumar said in the assembly and adjourned it till Thursday as demanded by the BJP.

BJP maintained the government had been reduced to “a minority” with the 16 coalition MLAs resigning their assembly membership and hence opposed conduct of House business till the trust vote.

Kumaraswamy continued to remain confident his government would get over the crisis.

“I have full confidence…why do you worry,” he told reporters here in response to a question as the coalition struggled to shore up its numbers brought down by the MLAs’ resignations.

Senior Congress legislators said they have got more time to continue their efforts to mollify the rebel MLAs.

Keeping up pressure on the Speaker and government, BJP also sought to move a no-confidence motion against the over 13-month old Kumaraswamy ministry with its members J C Madhu Swamy, K G Bopaiah and C M Udasi submitting a notice, but later agreed to the trust vote schedule.

The Speaker’s announcement after the assembly’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting came even as the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea of five more rebel Congress MLAs along with the pending petition of 10 legislators seeking a direction to him to accept their resignations.