Karnataka case hearing in SC: Congress-JD(S) ready for floor test tomorrow, says Abhishek Singhvi

Amid the high political drama, the Supreme Court on Friday resumed its hearing on Congress' plea regarding Karnataka Governor's decision to invite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government in their state.

The Supreme Court has ordered floor test tomorrow (Saturday) at 4 PM at the floor of Karnataka Assembly. BJP has opposed floor test tomorrow and demanded more time but this request was turned down.

Congress has claimed in the court that Congress-JD(S) is ready for the floor test on Saturday.

"SC has delivered a historic verdict, many important directions have been given, one of them being that floor test has to be conducted at 4 pm tomorrow under a protem speaker,"  Congress' lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

SC has delivered a historic verdict, many important directions have been given, one of them being that floor test has to be conducted at 4 pm tomorrow under a protem speaker: Abhishek Manu Singhvi #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/6yz00qUvKu

— ANI (@ANI) May 18, 2018

The apex court bench of Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde and Ashok Bhushan resumed the hearing on the Congress' petition seeking stay on BJP's BS Yeddyruppa's swearing in. The Supreme Court examined the letters dated on May 15 and May 16 by Yeddyurappa to Governor Vajubhai Vala staking claim to form the government in Karnataka.

According to news agency ANI report, BJP's lawyer Mukul Rohatgi handed over the two letters to the Supreme Court. Rohatgi told the apex court that that Yeddyurappa has been elected as leader of largest party and he has the support of necessary number of MLAs and is ready to prove it on floor of House.

"We have certain information that many MLAs from other parties have not given any kind of written support to Congress-JD(S)," lawyer Rohatgi told the Court.

While the elections in Karnataka witnessed a lot of two-and-fro allegations filled with jibes between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the real twist came in after the results threw a hung Assembly with BJP emerging as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by Congress (78) and the JD-(S), which won 37 seats.

Despite Congress and JD-(S) forming a quick alliance and being in a strong position to form the government with enough seats together (115), Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R Vala on Wednesday went on invite the BJP to form the new government.

However, the Governor's move triggered the Congress to file a plea in the Supreme Court on late Wednesday after which a rare midnight hearing by the three-judge bench of justice AK Sikri, justice SA Bobde and justice Ashok Bhushan was conducted that ran for hours.

However, nothing worked out in favour of Congress as the court refused to stay the oath taking ceremony and BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa was therefore sworn in as the 23rd chief minister of Karnataka on Thursday morning.

Yeddyruppa took oath as planned but he has been ordered to produce the two letters dated May 15 and 16 he has written to Governor Vajubhai Vala to stake his claim for government formation.

The BJP leader is said to have claimed a majority support in the letters. But the question is how?

The beleaguered Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leaders, however, protested against the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa and termed the Governor's decision "unconstitutional". The protest saw former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, party General Secretary KC Venugopal and senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The Congress and JD(S) on Thursday moved their newly-elected MLAs from Eagleton resort and moved them to Hyderabad via bus, ostensibly to prevent them being poached by the BJP, which they alleged was indulging in 'horse trading' to win over their MLAs.

"There is no question of fearing, but we have to take some cautions because of previous experiences. We wanted to take special care to represent their (Congress and JD(S) MLAs) living. We are not encouraging horse-trading. To stop it, they are living together," Janata Dal (Secular) or (JD-S) leader HD Kumaraswamy told the media.

The Supreme Court's decision witnessed a lot of political outburst with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President MK Stalin, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stating that the Central government has misused its power to form government in Karnataka.

The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar and Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, then directed Jethmalani to mention it before the Justice AK Sikri-led bench on Friday morning.

While BJP has managed 105 MLAs (including one Independent seat), they are still short of the halfway mark of 112 by seven MLAs and have been given 15 days to prove their majority in the Karnataka assembly by the Supreme Court. 

(With PTI inputs)