The fate of the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka will be decided today with a trust vote in the Assembly even as the rebel MLAs on Sunday bluntly refused to compromise on their stand. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy appealed to them to come back to save the government from “evil forces”, who were trying to subvert democracy.
The 12 rebel MLAs, on the other hand, claimed they were forced to rebel to protect their “self-respect” and that they were not after either money or power. Releasing a video message on the eve of the vote, the rebel MLAs reiterated that they would not retract and there was no question of them attending the Assembly session.
Byregowda targets rebels, Shettar objects
Minister and Congress MLA Krishna Byregowda speaks. "One of the rebel MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi has been in touch with BJP from the past 8 months. He has camped in Mumbai in November 2018, and again in January 2019 and has worked for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. We have moved a disqualification petition."
Targetting BJP, Mr. Byregowda continues. "B.C. Patil is disgruntled for not being made a minister. There is an audio tape of his conversation with two leaders. I don't want to name the other leader who is speaking in this audio."
 
He quotes from the audio where the two leaders are talking of money to be paid and how the other leader is heard assuring Mr. Patil that there won't be a bye-poll as well and says as soon as a BJP govt is formed, they will have their own Speaker who would neither accept their resignations nor disqualify them.
"The same thing has happened in Andhra. A national leader from that party also makes the same assurance," he says.
Jagdish Shettar takes objection. He says allegations cannot be made against members who aren't present in the House.
Speaker Ramesh Kumar overrules the objection. "They were given the right to sit here by the people and they had not written to me explaining their absence as well." Your objection will sustain when allegations are being made against those who are not members of this House, not members of the House who have opted not to come, he tells Mr. Shettar.