Karnataka govt asks Bhardwaj to summon legislature session

BANGALORE: Taking governor HR Bhardwaj head-on, the Karnataka cabinet passed a resolution urging him to convene the state legislature session from June 2.

This decision comes following Bhardwaj's refusal to summon legislature session from May 16.

"Now enough time has been given to the governor to summon the session. The government hopes that he won't give any reasons," law and parliamentary affairs minister S Suresh Kumar said.

He added that the cabinet felt that it was necessary to pass the budget for the implementation of development programmes. "Therefore it was decided to recommend to the governor to convene both houses of legislatures for a period of 10 days from June 2," he said.

The emergency cabinet meeting was held a day after Bhardwaj recommended to the Centre to keep the assembly in suspended animation in the wake of the Supreme Court quashing the disqualification of 11 rebel BJP and five Independent MLAs.

Kumar said that the cabinet expressed its displeasure over the report sent by the governor to the centre, but did not pass any other resolution, he said. "The grounds that have been made out by the governor in his special report cannot be the basis for this kind of recommendation (dismissal of the government)," Kumar asserted.