Bengaluru, Oct. 10: The Karnataka Speaker had served show cause notices on 13 BJP MLAs on October 7 and five independents on October 9. Later, the notices served on the excise minister, Mr M.P. Renukacharya and Mr Narasimha Nayak (Raju Gowda) were withdrawn.
The BJP sources said that if the 16 MLAs —11 BJP and five independents — are suspended, the votes required to win the trust vote will come down from the present 113 to 105 votes in a 224 member House. “We are confident of reaching the magic figure,” they asserted.
The Speaker, who heard both sides — the loyal BJP legislators and the representatives of the BJP dissidents — on Sunday evening, reserved his judgement. Sources in the BJP said the Speaker may announce his judgement only hours before the proceedings begin in the Assembly.
What could tilt the scales in favour of the Opposition is a letter sent by the Governor, Mr H.R. Bhardwaj, to Mr Bopaiah on Sunday afternoon, requesting him not to change the configuration of the Assembly till the proceedings are over on Monday. He has told the Speaker clearly that he will not accept the result of the trust vote if the present composition of the Assembly is disturbed. The BJP suspects that the Governor could be preparing the ground for dismissing Mr Yeddyurappa as the only way the government could survive is by ensuring that the rebels are disqualified. In a similar situation in Meghalaya a year ago, the Governor, Mr R.S. Moosahary, had recommended the dismissal of the government which was later accepted by the Centre.
Ignoring the directive, the Speaker declared as invalid the votes of dissidents and exercised his vote to break a tie helping the NCP-led alliance government to win a confidence vote in the Assembly.