Oct 09: Governor recommends president’s rule: stage set for mid-term polls
Governor of Karnataka Rameshwar Thakur recommended president’s rule in the state as HD Kumaraswamy resigned from chief minister post after weeklong negotiations on power sharing between all top political parties went in vain. This is for the fourth time that the state is heading to president’s rule and certainly points to a continuous political uncertainty hanging in the fate of the state.
Ending the last minute speculations of a patch up between JD(S) and BJP as JDS might back a BJP led government the chief minister had no option but to submit resignation governor announced the president rule.
Kumaraswamy was supposed to prove his majority on the floor on Oct 18 but BJP had already resigned from the state assembly and on the other hand Congress made its purpose clear not to support JD(S). This left JDS in minority as it had only 51 members in a 225-member assembly which needs 113 votes for any government to survive.
Earlier BJP pulled out support from the JD(S) in the state as Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy rejected the BJP’s deadline to transfer power. BJP ministers resigned from the assembly as the whole political scenario went against the power-sharing pact reached 20 months ago.
The 20 months government was formed on February 2006 with the BJP-JD(S) alliance as BJP had the maximum number of seats with 79. Congress was in the second spot with 65 members but with the political turmoil Congress also felt wise to stay away from the ongoing political drama and demanded president’s rule and prepare itself for mid-term polls.
It is said that Governor asked Kumaraswamy to step down as the number was not in his favour for a floor test. In fact President’s Rule is not new to Karnataka as the state had already been under president rule thrice in the past.
History of President’s Rule in Karnataka
Karnataka for the first time came into President’s rule in the beginning of the 4 th Assembly when Veerandra Patil (May 29, 1968 to March 18, 1971) was the Chief Minister and the rule was imposed from March 19, 1971 to March 20, 1972.
During the period of Devaraj Urs (March 20, 1972 – Dec 31, 1977) the president’s rule was imposed for the second time from Dec 31, 1977 to Feb 28, 1978.
The last time the state came under President’s rule is during the 8 th Assembly (March 18, 1985 to April 21, 1989). The rule was imposed from April 21, 1989 to Nov 30, 1989. During this period Janta Party was in power and Ramakrishna Hegde and S.R. Bommai were Chief Ministers before the imposition of President’s rule.
This is for the fourth time that the Governor of the state recommended President’s Rule but it may last for the next 4-5 months before the declaration of mid-term polls.
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