{"id":43590,"date":"2018-05-19T14:35:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T09:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=43590"},"modified":"2018-05-19T14:53:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T09:23:43","slug":"karnataka-floor-test-slated-for-4-pm-by-pro-tem-speaker-bopaiah-to-be-telecast-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/politics\/karnataka-floor-test-slated-for-4-pm-by-pro-tem-speaker-bopaiah-to-be-telecast-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Karnataka floor test slated for 4 pm by Pro Tem Speaker Bopaiah, to be telecast live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro Tem Speaker of Karnataka assembly KG Bopaiah will preside over the floor test at 4 pm today, Saturday, May 19, for BS Yeddyurappa to prove his majority.<\/p>\n

The proceedings will be telecast live.<\/p>\n

Direction for this were given by the Supreme<\/a> Cou<\/a>rt<\/a> this morning while hearing the Congress-JD(S) objections to appointment of Bopaiah as pro tem speaker against the convention of designating the senior most MLA for the task.<\/p>\n

The SC \u00a0dismissed the plea repeated by Yeddyurappa’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi for a “little more time” – at least until Monday – as the time given was “too short”.<\/p>\n

The Congress argued that Bopaiah is not just the wrong candidate in seniority — the senior-most lawmaker in Karnataka is Congress’s RV Deshpande — but he has a history of breaking rules to save Yeddyurappa in trust votes.<\/p>\n

The SC, while hearing the objections to Bopaiah’s appointment, said to go into this, the other side would also have to heard and the floor test would have to postponed. The court also said that it could not direct the Governor to appoint the senior most MLA as pro tem speaker unless the convention becomes law.<\/p>\n

The court said the better option was to have the assembly proceedings telecast live to ensure transparency. This would take care of the concerns raised.<\/p>\n

This will be the third floor test that Yeddyurappa will face. In 2007, he resigned ahead of the floor test after JD(S) leadership refused to extend support to his government and in 2011, he comfortably won.<\/p>\n

Yeddyurappa exuded confidence, saying he would win the floor test easily and insisted that many Congress-JD(S) MLAs would vote in his favour.<\/p>\n

His close aide and Udupi-Chikkamagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje said, “We welcome the Supreme Court ruling… we have already got support of 120 MLAs including 16 from Congress and JD(S) camps and are confident of proving our majority.”<\/p>\n

There were other developments and moves. Three Congress lawmakers were missing in the Karnataka assembly as newly-elected members were sworn in on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Congress and Janata Dal Secular have gone to great lengths to protect their 116 legislators, but two Congress members, Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil, have been missing for two days and the Congress alleged constant attempts being made to break its lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Pratap Gowda was not present in the assembly when his name was called out for his oath. Sources say the missing lawmakers are at a hotel where attempts are on to bring them around. Anand Singh had alleged that he was “kidnapped and threatened with criminal cases”.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Congress alleged audio proof that Janardhana Reddy, the mining kingpin closely associated with the BJP, had tried to bribe a lawmaker. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar rubbished the Congress charge. “There is a reference to Amit Shah in it… Amit Shah doesn’t do this… Several such lies have been exposed,” the senior BJP leader, calling the tape “false propaganda”.<\/p>\n

There were reports that two Congress legislators and one from the BJP were not in the house, three hours before the Karnataka trust vote. Quoting sources, ANI reported BJP legislator G Somashekhar Reddy is with the two ‘missing’ Congress MLAs Anand Singh and Pratap Gouda.<\/p>\n

Ordered by the Supreme Court to personally monitor the security of the MLAs, the Director General of Police went to the Goldfinch hotel to check\u00a0 if the Congress lawmakers, Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil, had been held captive or were there of their own free will, people familiar with the matter told NDTV.<\/p>\n

“Elaborate security arrangements have been made at the secretariat and homes of legislators’ to facilitate smooth conduct of the assembly proceedings for the floor test,” Karnataka Director General of Police Nilamani Raju said, the NDTV reported. Any kind of rally or procession by political parties and their supporters are banned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"