india

Updated: Jul 10, 2019 16:19 IST

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the second day in a row on Wednesday over the crisis in Karnataka as opposition lawmakers wanted to discuss the issue of “defections being engineered to dislodge elected governments”.

All the 13 MLAs in Karnataka– 10 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) —submitted their resignations last week, threatening the coalition government’s slim majority in the 224-member state assembly.

Lawmakers from the Congress and Left parties wanted the business of the House to be suspended and had given a notice under Rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha.

The chairperson, however, refused to consider their demands. Referring to a previous instance, the Chair said the ruling of the chairman on whether to accept the notice is “final and cannot be challenged”.

Members of the Congress rushed into the well of House shouting slogans and repeated appeals by the Chairman failed to have any effect on the protesting lawmakers. The House, which is slated to discuss the Budget later in the day, was adjourned almost immediately after it conveyed at 11am for an hour. It was again adjourned at 12pm till 2pm.

“What is defection, what is affection is for the Speaker of the House to decide,” Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said. “Please allow democracy to function,” Naidu said.

There was high drama on Wednesday morning outside the Mumbai hotel where 10 rebel MLAs are holed up. Congress troubleshooter DK Shivakumar was stopped from entering the hotel with supporters of the rebel MLAs shouting “go back” slogans.

The rebel Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) legislators, who sent their resignation letters last week, also approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday, complaining that Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar was delaying accepting their letters.

Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the petition before a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to request an early hearing. Chief Justice Gogoi has agreed to hear the petition tomorrow.

The petition comes a day after Speaker Kumar declined to accept the resignations of eight lawmakers, pointing out that they did not meet the parameters laid down in the rules. Kumar has also made it clear that he would need to meet the legislators to make sure that they are voluntary and genuine before signing off on them.