was in the US on a private trip and due
to return by the end of the week. Things
started unravelling on July 6 when a
motley group of legislators—nine from
Congress and three from JD(S)—
trooped into the secretariat to put in
their papers, taking everybody by sur-
prise. Immediately, some of them went
to Raj Bhavan to apprise the governor of
the developments. Kumara swamy was
back by the evening of July 7, but by
then, most of the rebel MLAs were in
Mumbai. On July 9, Congress legislator
R. Roshan Baig, who had been sus-
pended last month after he blamed
Congress Karnataka-in-charge K.C.
Venugopal and Karnataka PradeshCongress Committee president Dinesh
Gundu Rao for the party’s poor show in
the Lok Sabha elections, added his
resignation to the list, taking the num-
ber of MLAs who quit to 14.s
O far, the Speaker has ruled that
only five of the resignations were in
order and has given these legisla-
tors appointments for hearings on
July 12 and 15. The others, he said, could
send fresh letters in the correct format.
“I have to make a conscious decision.
Every step I take will become history,
so I can’t commit a mistake,” he told
reporters. The coalition government’s
fate clearly hinges on these proceedings.It’s no secret that the BJP has been
smarting since it emerged as the sin-
gle-largest party in the 2018 Karnataka
assembly elections but still fell short of
a simple majority. The BJP’s tally is
currently 105. The simple majority
mark in Karnataka’s 224-member
assembly is 113. The Congress-JD(S)
coalition has 117 legislators (including a
lone BSP MLA). The resignations, if
accepted, can reduce the majority mark
to 106, giving the BJP its best shot at
forming the government. Two
Independent MLAs have been swaying
to and fro—they initially supported the
Kumaraswamy government, then
switched sides, but again swung back to
be sworn in as ministers as recently as
June. Now, they are backing the BJP.
But the fragility of Karnataka’s coali-
tion set-up wasn’t lost on anyone, more
so after the BJP’s formidable sweep in
the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Their parties reduced to one apiece out
of 28 Lok Sabha seats, Congress and
JD(S) leaders pointed fingers at each
other for the poll debacle. Kumara-
swamy, himself facing flak for being
inaccessible, revived his ‘village-stay’22 July 2019 OutlOOk 13
Photographs: Pticontours of a crisis (clockwise
from above) BJP leaders demand the
cM’s resignation; Kumaraswamy in
Bangalore; and the Vidhana soudhaMutiny on HD Karna taka