Karnataka trust vote: near empty treasury benches, speaker displeased
Bengaluru: Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Tuesday expressed displeasure over near empty treasury benches as the House took up the debate on Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's motion of confidence for the fourth day running.
The treasury benches were occupied only by a couple of legislators when the House, which is expected to complete the trust vote process by Tuesday, met in the morning after a prolonged drama that last almost till midnight on Monday.
"Should this be the fate of the speaker or the assembly," Kumar asked minister Priyank Kharge. "You will lose credibility, leave alone strength," he told him.
The absence of legislators from the coalition gave the BJP enough ammunition.
BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa said the government had exposed itself and asked where the ruling coalition MLAs were.
"In spite of not having the numbers, you are continuing shamelessly. You should be ashamed," he told the treasury benches.
His colleague, senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar, added that Kumaraswamy was said to be in his chamber clearing the files at the last minute instead of being in the House.
"People are disgusted. You are a black mark on the assembly. You have taken the House lightly," he said.
K S Eshwarappa, also of the BJP, said the "MLAs are as good as their chief minister", and added that he suspected "this is nothing but delaying tactics."
His colleague Basavaraj Bommai dubbed it a "zero government".
The speaker made it clear Monday night before adjourning the House that voting on the confidence motion would be completed by 6 pm on Tuesday and would not be deferred under any circumstances.
The ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition members had forced the speaker to adjourn the House, despite repeated reminders by him that they had given a commitment to complete the trust vote process on Monday itself.
As the House debated the motion amid noisy scenes, the Congress made its intentions clear right from the beginning, saying that voting should be deferred as the apex court was hearing the pleas by two Independent MLAs on the issue of the trust vote.
The Supreme Court is hearing Tuesday a fresh plea of two Independent Karnataka MLAs, seeking holding of the floor test "forthwith" in the state Assembly on the trust motion.
The MLAs who withdrew support to the ruling coalition had sought a direction to the Kumaraswamy government to conduct the floor test on or before 5 pm on Monday.
The ruling coalition defied the two deadlines set by Governor Vajubhai Vala -- to complete the process by 1.30 pm on Friday and later by the end of the day.
The proceedings were adjourned till Monday after the speaker extracted a commitment from the government that the process would be completed by Monday itself.
While 16 MLAs -- 13 from the Congress and three from JD(S) -- have resigned, independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh have withdrawn their support to the coalition government, pushing the government to the precipice.
One Congress member, Ramalinga Reddy, retracted from his decision to resign, saying he would support the government. The ruling combine's strength is 117-- Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1 and nominated 1, besides the speaker.
With the support of two independents, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 225-member House, including the nominated MLA and speaker.
If the resignations of the 15 MLAs (12 from Congress and three from JD-S) are accepted or if they stay away, the ruling coalition's tally will plummet to 101, reducing the government to a minority.
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Rupee strengthens past 90/USD level in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee appreciated 24 paise to 89.96 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, supported by corporate dollar inflows and easing crude oil prices.
Forex traders said the gain in the USD/INR pair follows the rupee’s string of record lows in recent weeks on likely intervention from the Reserve Bank of India.
Moreover, crude oil prices hovering around USD 59 per barrel level supported market sentiment.
ALSO READ:Rupee trades in narrow range against US dollar in early trade
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.19 against the US dollar, then gained some ground and touched 89.96 against the US dollar, registering a gain of 24 paise over its previous close.
In initial trade it also touched 90.22 against the American currency. On Thursday, the rupee appreciated 18 paise against the US dollar to close at 90.20 against the greenback.
The rupee sank to a fresh record low, breaching the 91-a-dollar mark for the first time on Tuesday.
"Since the speculators are out of the market the buying of US dollar syndrome has come down a bit though intra-day we could see spikes," said Anil Kumar Bhansali Head of Treasury and Executive Director Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.
The US CPI came lower than expected but was also due to non-collection of sufficient data and therefore, the next month’s CPI becomes more important, Bhansali said, adding that "Rupee remains in a range of 90-90.50".
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 98.46.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 0.27 per cent at USD 59.66 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex climbed 375.98 points to 84,857.79, while the Nifty was up 110.60 points to 25,934.15.
Foreign Institutional Investors purchased equities worth Rs 595.78 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal on Thursday said he is not concerned about the rupee at all, arguing that even China and Japan witnessed exchange rate weaknesses during their high growth phases.
Speaking at 'Times Network's India Economic Conclave 2025', Sanyal said since the 90s, the rupee has mostly been allowed to find its own level, but the RBI uses its reserves to intervene in either direction to stop excessive volatility.
"I am not concerned about the rupee at all... Let me say that the rupee and its current weakness should not be necessarily conflated with some economic worry, because historically, if you go over time, you will see that economies that are in their high growth phase very often go through a phase of exchange rate weakness," he said.
