Karnataka/Report : Street named after Gaza!

Big Setback for Congress

The Siddaramaiah government received a big setback on June 15, when it lost the no-confidence motion it had moved against Legislative Council Chairman DH Shankarmurthy Shri Shankarmurthy is a BJP MLC and one of the most respected leaders cutting across the party lines. In fact, the Siddaramaiah Government got a tight slap on its face when it tried to attempt something which was not done in 135-year history. In fact, it was a major
embarrassment for the ruling Congress in Karnataka.
Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbe Gowda of the Janata
Dal-Secular put the motion to vote in the 75-member council, where the Congress has 33 members, BJP 23, JD-S 13, and the Independents are five. The BJP members include the Council Chairman.
In fact, even the Congress legislators admit that Shankaramurthy was one of the best Chairmen to have ever occupied the special post. However, just because the Congress wanted
to oust a BJP man, they moved against him.
Stating that it was his privilege to work as Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council, he claimed he had functioned in a non-partisan and responsible manner. Pointing out that his tenure as the Chairman has been  an “open book”, Shankaramurthy reminded the members, “You have seen my  work, vote according to your conscience.” Shankaramurthy on his part said that all the allegations made against him were “totally baseless, irresponsible and irrelevant”.
BJP’s K S Eshwarappa, who is the leader of opposition in  the Council, called the no-confidence motion an attempt by  Congress to seize the Chairman’s post through “cunning  politics.” He said JDS’ support in this trust vote is a step towards creating Congress-free Karnataka and the party high command will take “suitable decisions” in the days to come.
Despite Congress making its best efforts to get support of JD(S) (its alliance partner in Bengaluru’s Civic Municipality) and even the Karnataka state unit Congress president and Home Minister G Parameshwara meeting JD(S) supremo and former PM HD Deve Gowda to convince their vote, it failed miserably.   
–Guruprasad R, Bengaluru