Bengaluru, May 19: The floor test in the Karnataka Assembly is scheduled for 4 pm today, as per the Supreme Court order. Senior BJP MLA K.G. Bopaiah, who was appointed as the Pro Tem Speaker by Governor Vajubhai Vala, will oversee the proceedings, which will also be telecast live.
BJP, with 104 seats, is seven short of the required number of 111. The Congress with 78 MLAs, the JD(S) with 36 and three others are also individually not in a position to form the government.
Assembly session began at 11 am on Saturday morning and the newly-elected MLAs took were sworn into the Karnataka Assembly. Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was sworn in alone on Friday morning by Governor Vajubhai Vala.
Pratapgouda Patil, the Congress MLA from Maski who went missing and was said to have joined the BJP camp, reached Vidhana soudha a few minutes earlier, sources said. He was said to have been holed up in a private hotel in Bengaluru.
Congress leaders issued the party whip to the MLA. BJP MLA S.R. Viswanath was seen trying to take the MLA away, but he refused and joined the Congress camp.
Anand Singh, the missing Congress MLA also reached Vidhana Soudha, along with his wife and son. He was welcomed by D.K. Shivakumar and taken inside.
Massive security arrangements
As per the directions of the apex court, the police have made massive security arrangements in and around the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature, for the smooth conduct of the floor test, reports news agency.
Public entry to the Vidhana Soudha has been restricted and officials and staff of the Secretariat are being allowed to enter the premises after thorough checks.
120 marshals of legislative assembly and 80 marshals of legislative council have been deployed today.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
BJP doing strange things. Feku and shah scripting all these dramas
BJP will sabotage the floor test, no doubt in that
Nobody can predict BJP dirty tricks
BJP politricks will be a milestone in Karnataka political history
Add new comment