By IANS
Bangalore : With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday deciding to pull out of its alliance with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka, the focus has shifted to the Raj Bhavan. Governor Rameshwar Thakur has now to decide whether to sack the H.D. Kumaraswamy government or allow the chief minister to prove his majority on the floor of the house.
Rameshwar Thakur, formerly a Congress leader, took over as governor in August when indications were there that the JD-S-BJP coalition government, which came to power 20 months back, was hurtling towards collapse.
One option before Thakur is to sack the Kumaraswamy-led ministry after the BJP formally informs him of withdrawal of support. The JD-S has only 51 members in the 225-strong assembly.
The party won 58 seats in the 2004 assembly polls but seven MLAs aligned with JD-S rebel leader Siddaramaiah, who has since joined the Congress. The fate of six of his supporters is in the hands of assembly speaker K.R. Pet Krishna.
The BJP has 79 members while the Congress has 65. The smaller parties and independents make up the rest.
The governor can decide to allow Kumaraswamy to prove his majority on the floor of the house, an option the chief minister and his party are hoping for.
That will depend on the stand that Congress takes.
As of Saturday, the Congress was maintaining that a decision on what stand it takes rests with the high command. The Congress leadership has said that it will move only after the BJP meets the governor to inform him of its withdrawal of support to the JD-S.
If the Congress decides to go in for elections and inform the governor that it will not support Kumaraswamy, then the governor will have little option but to dismiss the ministry and imposed President’s Rule in the state.
If Kumaraswamy is asked to prove his majority and not sacked immediately by the governor, the BJP will cry foul.
Kumaraswamy and his father and JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda will try to avoid a dismissal, relying on the country’s apex court ruling that the majority or otherwise of a ministry should be tested on the floor of the house.
The BJP Saturday ended its 20-month-old coalition with the JD-S in Karnataka and called for fresh elections, terming the latter’s refusal to keep its promise and hand over power as “the worst betrayal” in Indian politics.
The JD-S has refused to hand over power to the BJP, violating an agreement reached between the two parties when they formed the coalition in February 2006. The BJP was to get the reins of the state after 20 months.
Under the agreement, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy’s term ended Oct 3.