india

Updated: Jul 21, 2019 20:27 IST

Concerned over another delay, two independent Karnataka lawmakers have decided to approach the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the state government to conduct the floor test tomorrow to determine the strength of the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) coalition.

The HD Kumaraswamy-led government missed the Governor’s second deadline on Friday for the floor test. Speaker Ramesh Kumar, however, made it clear that the House will wind up the motion on Monday with a vote. The postponement left the coalition members jubilant and the BJP MLAs complaining.

Petitioners and MLAs H Nagesh and R Shankar, who belong to separate parties, have already withdrawn their support to the HD Kumaraswamy government.

The petitioners alleged that by delaying the floor test, the Kumarswamy government was violating the basic structure of the constitution and urged the top court to invoke its special powers under Article 32 to remedy the political situation in the state which is “being violated with impunity”.

About 16 MLAs belonging to the ruling coalition have tendered their resignations.

“It is submitted that the trust vote is not being conducted despite the Govt being in a minority. It is submitted that a minority government, which does not have the confidence of the majority is being allowed to continue in office,” read their petition.

The petitioners alleged that taking advantage of this “logjam”, the Kumaraswamy government is “taking several executive decisions like transferring the Police Officers, IAS officers, other Officials etc.”

The petition further stated that “the Governor has also mentioned in his letter that he has received information relating to horse-trading.”

“It is submitted that it is apprehended that the Chief Minister of Karnataka, who is heading the Minority Govt, may make himself scarce from the proceedings on 22.7.19. It has been reliably learnt that in a desperate attempt to avoid the trust vote, the Chief Minister of the Karnataka may also rake up an emergent situation and use medical emergencies, including hospitalization to avoid the trust vote,” the petition further said.

The lawmakers implored the court to “intervene to uphold the rule of law and constitutional democracy”.