The apex court has asked 10 rebel Karnataka lawmakers to meet the State Assembly Speaker K. R. Ramesh Kumar. The court has also requested the Speaker to meet them in the evening to decide on their resignations and send his report to the court tomorrow.
The rebels had moved to the apex court seeking its intervention for an early decision on their resignation by the Speaker.
Supreme Court asks 10 rebel Congress-JDS MLAs of Karnataka "to meet the Karnataka Assembly Speaker at 6pm today and submit their resignations if they so wish." SC, says, "security would be provided to the MLAs." pic.twitter.com/RPXd1FPTz3
— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2019
So far 16 lawmakers – 13 from Congress and 3 from JD(S), have resigned from their respective parties, reducing the coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy to a minority.
In the 225-member provincial assembly, Kumaraswamy’s government now enjoys the support of only 100 lawmakers. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a strength of 107 members.
In New Delhi, the Congress lawmakers, led by their party’s former President Rahul Gandhi staged a demonstration outside the Parliament to protest against what they said was a blatant misuse of power by the BJP to take down the Karnataka government and break its lawmakers in neighbouring Goa.
Shri @RahulGandhi ji leads protest of Congress Party MPs Parliament House today against the blatant misuse of power by BJP in #Goa & #Karnataka and to save Democracy in India. pic.twitter.com/0VWVdTf8Z6
— Saral Patel (@SaralPatel) July 11, 2019
The Congress Party has been raising the Karnataka issue in Parliament, but the ruling BJP has denied its role in the developments in Karnataka.
Even as Congress was grappling with the crisis in Karnataka, in the neighbouring state of Goa, 10 out of its 15 lawmakers quit the party and switched their loyalty to the ruling BJP just ahead of a monsoon session of the provincial assembly that begins on 15th July. With this development the strength of the BJP in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly has gone up to 27.
The current turmoil in Karnataka and Goa has come as a double whammy for India’s main opposition Congress Party, just months after its debacle in parliamentary elections.