Quote:Karnataka Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who faces an acid test today, has just entered the assembly amidst tight security. Following him was Speaker K G Bopaiah, who has been under fire from the Opposition for the disqualifying 16 MLAs.



Defying the order of the speaker the 16 disqualified MLAs have entered the Karnataka assembly with the help of the JD-S MLAs and are staging a protest.



The 16 MLAs, who were refused an appointment by the chief justice at his residence, joined the JD-S MLAs at the assembly premises.



As per the Speaker’s order, the MLAs will not be permitted to take part in the proceedings, which commenced at 10 am.

Quote:The Union Home Ministry is said to be concerned over developments in Karnataka and has taken serious note of them.



Prima facie, sources feel that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the anti-defection law, has been abused

Quote:Violent scenes are being witnessed at the Karnataka assembly premises.



BJP’s rebel MLAs came to blows with security personnel and injured a marshal who was trying to restrict their entry in the wake of the Speaker’s order.



The rebel MLAs headed straight to the Speaker’s chair, stood on top of it and staged a protest.



The Congress and the JD-S MLAs squatted on the well of the House and refused to permit proceedings to start.

Quote:Those BJP MLAs who were disqualified are: Balachandra Jarkiholi, Belur Gopala Krishna, Anand Asnotikar, Dr Sarvabowma Bagali, V Nagaraju, Raje Kage, Y Sampangi, Nanjundaswamy, S K Bellubbi, H S Shankara Lingegowda and Shivanagouda Naik.



Former ministers Venkataramanappa, Shivaraj Tangadagi, Goolihatti Sekhar and M P Narendraswamy and independent MLAs have also been disqualified.

Quote: the drama is far from over.



The House has now been adjourned following which the speaker will have to explain the division of the votes.



The Congress MLAs, meanwhile, are headed to meet the Governor in Raj Bhavan to lodge a complaint against the manner in which the government conducted the proceedings in the assembly.

Quote:Adding more drama, the BJP has alleged that the son of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi has got into the act to destabilise its Government in Karnataka.



“It has come to our notice that Quattrocchi's son has come to Bangalore and held discussions with Deve Gowda in a hotel last night and is giving a push to the operation (of toppling the Government),” BJP MP DV Sadananda Gowda said.



“[color="#FF0000"]Intelligence department already has been information in this regard. We have taken it seriously and are looking at it in depth,”[/color] he added.



Quattrocchi's son, 33-year-old corporate honcho Massimo, runs business in India and also has presence in Bangalore. According to the membership records of the Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Massimo owns a company called CI Partners in Milan, which provides consultancy services to MNCs to help them establish commercial presence in different countries. The records state that CI Partners has in-depth knowledge of international markets, especially India, and that it has an office in Bangalore.

Quote:Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj will examine Monday's controversial trust vote.



The Governor, who had sent his observers to witness the proceedings, has asked for a report. He will also examine CCTV footage of the trust vote.



Meanwhile, Opposition leaders are headed for Raj Bhavan, seeking the Governor's intervention in the matter.



The Opposition has cried foul over the manner in which the proceedings were held.



They alleged that they had not been given an opportunity and the voice vote was not held in conformity with the rules.

Quote:The Karnataka assembly speaker K.G. Bopaiah's decision to disqualify 16 rebel MLAs including 11 from BJP under the provisions of anti-defection law was inspired from a ruling given by then Maharashtra assembly speaker Arun Gujrathi in 2002.



The Maharashtra BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde played an important role in sending copies of Gujrathi's ruling to the Karnataka BJP on Sunday night in an attempt to save the government.



Gujrathi had disqualified nine rebel MLAs of Congress-NCP for showing distrust in the government. His act had saved then Vilasrao Deshmukh government. He had ruled that if an MLA of a ruling party gives a letter to the speaker of the assembly expressing distrust in the government it can be assumed as defection from the party. Hence he can be disqualified under the provisions of anti defection law.



In Maharashtra, nine MLAs of ruling Congress-NCP had rebelled against then Vilasrao Deshmukh government in 2002. The Shiv Sena-BJP had claimed that the rebel MLAs were with them. A MLA Desmond Yates appointed by the Governor as an Anglo Indian too had supported the Sena-BJP. The Congress had taken objection to Yates' support to Sena-BJP by saying that he was a Congress member and had demanded to disqualify him.



In his ruling, Gujrathi had stated that though Yates was appointed to the assembly as an Anglo Indian, he was a Congress member. So his act of joining hands with Sena-BJP was a violation of the anti defection law. Gujrathi disqualified not only Yates but the nine Congress-NCP rebel MLAs too.



The Sena-BJP had challenged Gujrathi's ruling in the Supreme Court. However, the SC dismissed their petition by saying that only speaker of an assembly can take a decision on disqualification of members of the House.



Tawde told INDIA TODAY that the copies of Gujrathi's 47-page ruling were faxed to Karnataka BJP on Sunday night. "I talked to B.S. Yeddyurappa and informed him about Gujrathi's ruling. The Congress led UPA government will not dare to impose President's rule in Karnataka as the party itself had laid the precedence in a matter of disqualifying the members in Maharashtra," he said.

Quote:The police department is contemplating action against Congress leader Siddaramaiah after the latter allegedly abused Police Commissioner Shankar Bidri in the assembly on Monday. Bidri told reporters in Bengaluru that unparliamentary language was used against him by the leader.



Siddaramaiah had earlier alleged that the top cop had prevented him from entering the House ahead of the trust vote today.

Quote:The top leaders of the BJP are likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Karnataka. The chief ministers of the six BJP-ruled states are likely to join them during the meeting.

Quote:The Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka has decided to parade all its 105 legislators before President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday to substantiate its claim that it has the support of the majority of the members of the state legislative assembly. BJP leaders have decided to take this decision to put an end to Opposition parties’ allegations that the party had fallen short of a majority and had resorted to arm twisting to win the trust vote on Monday.



The BJP contingent will travel to Delhi either on Monday night or early on Tuesday to parade its MLAs before the President.[color="#FF0000"] The party has also decided to intensify its protest against Governor H R Bharadwaj, who sent a letter to the Union government seeking dissolution of the House. The party said it will resist all attempts by the Union government to dissolve the assembly.[/color]



Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly has issued a communication stating that only 8 Janata Dal - Secular MLAs and 26 Congress MLAs had signed the attendance register at the House today. The Speaker was trying to indicate that just 34 of the Opposition MLAs were serious enough to attend the proceedings.

Quote:The top brass of the BJP are holding discussions amongst themselves to chalk out the future course of action for the party in Karnataka, where[size="5"] Governor H R Bharadwaj has sought Presidents rule. According to Bharadwaj, the confidence motion in the assembly, which was won by the BJP-led B S Yeddyurappa government, was not held in a proper manner.[/size]



BJP president Nitin Gadkari will hold discussions with senior members of the party today.



Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a senior vice president of the BJP, has alleged that the Congress has "mastered the art of murdering the Constitution of India".



"It is strange that within an hour of Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa winning the confidence motion in the state legislative assembly by voice vote as per the directive given by the governor, the governor wrote to the central government to impose President's rule in the state," Naqvi told rediff.com.



He alleged that the Congress party "is in league with" Janata Dal – Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy.



"The Congress has turned governor bhavan into the Congress office in Karnataka. The letter written by Bharadwaj is nothing but a script written at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi," he said.