Nataka in Karnataka: 13-month-old Kumaraswamy govt faces its moment of truth—A timeline of how crisis unfolded
A timeline of how the Karnataka crisis unfolded starting from resignations of MLAs and what happened after assembly election results in 2018.
Karnataka nataka: The 13-month old Congress-JD(S) led government has been hanging on a thin thread ever since it was formed on May 23, 2018 when HD Kumaraswamy, JDS leader and son of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, took oath as chief minister.
The two parties came together to keep BJP out of power in the state which had emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, followed by Congress with 80 seats and JD(S) with 37 in the 224 member assembly.
But now, it is on the verge of collapse after getting hit by a storm of resignations by a number of MLAs from both the parties — Congress and JD(S) — who have upped the ante raising questions on its working, performance and saying that they have lost their confidence in the government.
In total, 16 rebel MLAs of Congress-JD(S) have resigned so far from the assembly and are lodged in different hotels in Mumbai and other cities, waiting for Speaker to accept their resignations. Meanwhile, attempts are being by Congress-JD(S) to woo the rebel MLAs and somehow bring them back to save the government. As of now and what appears, everything is not happening according to their wishes.
On the other side, Yeddyurappa-led Karnataka BJP, who has been accused by the ruling state government of de-stabilising it, horse trading, have demanded Kumaraswamy's immediate resignation or prove his majority. The alliance government in Karnataka is facing its toughest 'exam' so far in its 13-month old tenure as it's going through the worst nightmare.
Meanwhile, the latest from BJP on the crisis has come that it is going to form the government in Karnataka in next 4-5 days, as claimed by the party state chief Yeddyurappa, eyeing the forthcoming trust vote session whose discussion will come up on July 18 this week. The BJP has rubbished all the allegations made by Congress-JD(S) leaders of it destabilising the government.
This is not the first time when Congress-JD(S) led Karnataka government was facing an existential crisis as in its so far tenure has gone through several such situations but none have been this serious.
Here is a timeline of how the crisis unfolded starting from resignations of MLAs and what happened after Karnataka Assembly Election Results in 2018:
Trouble started mounting for the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka after the Lok Sabha polls when the alliance which fought the election together won only 2 out of 28 parliamentary seats.
Senior Congress-JD(S) leaders including Mallikarjuna Kharge, Veerappa Moily, Deve Gowda couldn't even manage to win their respective seats.
Though the alliance leaders kept boasting during Lok Sabha elections that they would win big but the reality turned out to be quite bitter for them.
July 1, 2019: The first resgination came from Congress MLA BS Anand Singh from Vijaynagar. He submitted his resignation to Speaker KR Ramesh and met Governor Vajubhai R Vala. On the same day, another rebel MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi also resigned, faxing his resignation letter to the Speaker.
July 6, 2019: A 'bomb-of-resignations' by 12 rebel Congress-JD(S) blasted on the coalition government, creating a panic situation. Out of 12 MLAs, Congress' 9 and JD(S) - 3, submitted their resignations. Though Congress leader DK Shivakumar tried his best to take rebel MLAs in confidence, but the talks failed. Meanwhile, BJP leader CP Yogeshwar was spotted at Raj Bhavan with rebel MLAs.
On the same day, 10 rebel MLAs, barring Ramalinga Reddy and Munirathna, left for Mumbai. Here also, Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh was spotted with the rebel MLAs.
July 7, 2019: Amid the crisis situation, Kumaraswamy who was on a US trip, returned to Bengaluru and showed confidence that everything was fine and the government was super secure. After Kumaraswamy's return from US, a series of talks with senior leaders have been going on till date as the crisis doesn't stop unfolding.
July 8, 2019: In a bid to lure rebel MLAs, all Congress-JD(S) ministers tendered resignation to accomadate rebel ones including independents, through a cabinet rejig.
Congress-JD(S) Karnataka top brass appealed to rebel MLAs to return and assured them that their issues will be addressed.
In another setback on the same day, independent MLAs H Nagesh and R Shankar who were made ministers on June 14 to avoid rebellion also resigned as ministers with Nagesh announcing support to BJP and later joining rebel MLAs in Mumbai.
Yeddyurappa held his first party meet and studied all the developments. He demanded Kumaraswamy to resign claiming he has lost the majority. On the same day, all JD(S) MLAs also shifted to a resort to avoid further erosion of MLAs.
July 9, 2019: The crisis further unfolded and Congress petitioned Speaker to disqualify all its rebel MLAs, however, excluding Ramalinga Reddy. Meanwhile, suspended Congress leader Roshan Baig also tendered his resignation and hinted that he may also join the BJP.
Karnataka Speaker meanwhile said out of the 13 resignations, only 5 of them were in the prescribed format, therefore, dismissing remaining resignations.
July 10, 2019: DK Shivakumar reached Mumbai in order to meet the rebel MLAs but he couldn't as rebel MLAs had already sought security from Mumbai Police and appealed that they didn't want to meet Shivakumar or Kumaraswamy saying they were a threat to them.
Mumbai Police took Shivakumar into preventive custody and later sent him back to Bengaluru. Following this, two more MLAs, N Nagaraju and K Sudhakar resigned, taking the number of rebel MLAs to 16.
On the same day, Congress leader allegedly forcefully took K Sudhakar into KJ George's office and made attempts to woo him back and take back his resignations, but failed. Meanwhile, BJP protested against it.
July 11, 2019: Kumaraswamy, facing his government crisis, denied to resign and asked Speaker to disqualiy 3 rebel MLAs. Meanwhile, the matter reached to the Supreme Court after 10 rebel MLAs sought its intervention asking the court to direct the Speaker to take decision on the resignations.
Speaker replies to Supreme Court that he cannot take an immediate decision on rebel MLAs resignations since disqualification petitions against them was also pending.
July 12, 2019: Kumaraswamy in a surprise move said that he would seek for a trust vote. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court asked Speaker to maintain the status-quo and stayed all decisions on disqualification and acceptance of resignations.
July 13, 2019: Five more MLAs move SC alleging that they were being threatened to support Kumaraswamy during trust vote and urged SC to direct Speaker to decide on their resignations.
Meanwhile, in a little hope for the troubled alliance, rebel Congress MLA Nagaraj said he will not leave the party and assured that he will also try to convince another rebel MLA K Sudhakar to take back his resignation.
Siddaramaiah also showed confidence that most of the rebel MLAs will come back to the party.
July 14, 2019: Nothing happened as planned for the Congress-JD(S) as Nagaraj took a u-turn and flown back to Mumbai. Some reports say he went back to convince Sudhakar while some say he has denied to take back his resignation.
Rebel MLAs once again reiterated that they were not going to take back their resignations. Rebele MLAs denied to meet any JD(S)-Congress leaders from Karnataka or Maharashtra alleging a threat from them and approached Mumbai Police for security.
Congress leaders held meeting in Bengaluru and decided that the discussion on vote of confidence will be taken up on July 18 at 11 am in Karnataka Assembly.
The state witnessed a dramatic turn of events after assembly election results when it ended into a hung assembly. However, BJP in its bid to form the government claimed stake even when it was short of an absolute majority.
But the party still went ahead with Yeddyurappa claiming to form the government with 104 members as BJP had emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka assembly election. He took oath as chief minister in a low-profile ceremony on May 17, 2018 amid challenges by the opposition — Congress and JD(S) — who claimed that the BJP did not have the numbers and it was against the constitution.
The opposition also raised questions at the Governor and accused him of not inviting — Congress and JD(S) — to form the government as together they had the majority. The Governor rejected oppositions claim and said the single largest party has the first right to stake claim and rest comes after that. Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala invited Yeddyurappa to form the government and gave him 15-days time to prove the majority.
However, Congress and JD(S) did not give up and approached the Supreme Court on May 16, 2018 night (around 2 am) challenging Yeddyurappa's swearing-in. The Supreme Court bench comprising — AK Sikri, SA Bobde and Ashok Bhushanhearing — heard the matter which went for four hours when it was halted and later resumed the next day around 10:30 am. The Supreme Court after hearing petitions from both sides though did not stop Yeddyurappa's swearing-in but asked him to prove the majority by 4 pm, May 19, 2018 (Saturday).
Justice AK Sikri had then said, “floor test is the best option. Let the larger question of law, whether the governor can invite to form the government or not, be decided later." Meanwhile, both Congress and BJP indulged in verbal war with the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi who called it a mockery of the Constitution and defeat of democracy.
Yeddyurappa took the oath but rest of his cabinet members had to wait for their swearing in until he would have proved his majority. However, everything did not last as per BJP's wishes. As scheduled, the floot-test took place on Saturday at 4 pm but the newly-sworn chief minister Yeddyurappa failed to prove his majority and resigned in an emotional manner.
After Yeddyurappa's short but interesting inning as chief minister, Congress-JD(S) staked claim to form the government as they were having the numbers. Kumaraswamy was chosen alliance chief ministerial candidate as it was on this condition that JD(S) agreed for an alliance with the Congress even when the latter had more numbers with Siddaramaiah almost dreaming to become chief minister once again.
Kumaraswamy took oath as Karnataka chief minister on May 23, 2018. The ceremony was attended by Karnataka Congress president G Parameshwara who sworn-in as the deputy chief minister, then Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan.
But ever since the Congress-JD(S) coalition government has formed, it has remained fragile with spats between the two parties coming out in public domain a number of times with leaders of both the parties making statements against each other and chief minister Kumaraswamy himself breaking down on various occasion saying he only knows the pain of running a coalition government.
Just to know: BJP has previously ruled the state in 2007 and from 2008 to 2013.
Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy ever since he took charge of the alliance government had on several occasions expressed his pain of running a cohealition government.
The chief minister a number of times during public addresses said that only he knew the pain of running a coalition government with her eyes wept.
Every time he spoke like that, it sent out signals that all was not well between the Congress-JD(S) alliance, pointing fingers at Karnataka Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who was trying to pressurise Kumaraswamy.
Reports have been doing the rounds that former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during the so far tenure of the alliance government have made statements like the government would not last for its full-term and that he would become chief minister again.
However, after the intervention by party's top brass, he denied making any such statements, so that the alliance remains safe and the Congress government in Karnataka, one of the very few states where it is in power, should not collapse.
Former Prime Minister and JD(S) leader Deve Gowda (father of Kumaraswamy) after Lok Sabha polls debacle — in which Congress-JD(S) contested the election together and won only 2 out of 28 seats — publicly said that it was time for parties to contest elections separately, however, he later said that it meant for local elections.
Karnataka assembly election was held on May 12, 2018 and the results were declared on May 15, 2018. The results ended into hung assembly with BJP winning 104 seats, Congress 80, JDS 37, one seat went to an Independent candidate, one to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one to Pragnyavantha Janatha Party.
The elections were held in 222 out of 224 assembly constituencies. The election was deferred in Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, following the death of the MLA BN Vijaya Kumar and a voter fraud scandal respectively till May 28.
Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 72.13%, making it highest since 1952 in assembly polls.