Karnataka: All eyes on Yeddy regime

BANGALORE: After escaping President's rule in the state, the extended budget session of the state Legislature is all set to commence here on Thursday.The 10-day session is yet to commence, but it has had an inauspicious beginning, with the JD(S) already deciding to boycott it and the Congress likely to follow suit.Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was expected to seek approval of both the houses of the Legislature for the fullfledged budget presented in February.The 16 disqualified legislators who were reinstated later, following the verdict of the Supreme Court, too are expected to participate in the session.Speaking to Express, former minister Narendra Swamy, one of the reinstated five independent MLAs, informed that all the reinstated independent legislators will attend the session which would commence from tomorrow.The state had recently witnessed high political drama after Governor H R Bharadwaj recommended the dismissal of the 36monthold BJP government in the state and imposition of President's rule following the verdict of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, while setting aside the disqualification of the 16 legislators from the Assembly for their alleged anti-party activities, observed that Speaker K G Bopaiah had colluded with chief minister to save the government in the floor test.The Union government after keeping the state government on the tenterhooks for over a week rejected Governor H R Bharadwaj's report after realising that it lacked the requisite numbers in the Rajya Sabha to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution, and sent an advisory to the state government instructing it to address the issues raised by the Governor.Addressing newsmen here on Wednesday, Speaker K G Bopaiah informed that as many as nine bills would be tabled in the 10day session, which features the question hour, from Monday.As many as 189 questions received from the legislators have been admitted, he said.After a gap of over seven months, the reduced strength of the 225member Karnataka Assembly reached 224, including ruling BJP (119), Congress (71), JDS (26), Independents (6), Speaker (1), Nominated (1) and vacant (1).