Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition Government in Karnataka has come to stay. It has crossed the major hurdle, passing the test of majority on the floor of the Legislative Assembly. The voting in the early hours of Thursday showed that the Government enjoys a comfortable majority.

The motion of thanks moved by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was adopted by 138 to 66 votes, with 21 members having been absent. Those who voted against the motion include nominated member Ivan Nigly.

The voting pattern shows that there have been significant accretions to the JD (S). On January 18, when Mr. Kumaraswamy walked out on his father H.D. Deve Gowda and met the Governor he had with him a list of 39 party MLAs and five independents.

Prakash votes in favour

That the former Deputy Chief Minister, M.P. Prakash, and the former Ministers, D. Manjunath, Merajuddin Patel and Mahadeva Prasad, voted in favour of the motion is most significant. They were so far with Mr. Gowda. What more, Mr. Prakash, who was replaced by Mr. Kumaraswamy as the leader of the JD (S) Legislature Party, spoke accepting the fait accompli of his successor. He did not go into the legality of his replacement which was dwelt upon at length by another former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah leading to acrimony. Mr. Prakash had replaced Mr. Siddaramaiah, who on Wednesday had to refer to the "compounded illegality" — the two coups Mr. Prakash unseating him and Mr. Kumaraswamy wresting the leadership from Mr. Prakash.

It was a repeat in Karnataka of Pakistan 1958 — Major General Iskander Mirza removing prime minister Sir Firoz Khan Noon from power only to be replaced six days later in a second coup by Gen. Ayub Khan.

Focus on expansion

The expansion of the two-member Ministry is eagerly awaited and watched. The expansion is expected within the next one week. The new Government will also have to go through the drill of a second joint session of the Legislature and Governor's address.

The address of Governor T.N. Chaturvedi at the joint session held on January 19 has been in vain as the Dharam Singh government bowed out of office. It is for the first time in the history of the State that the two Houses could not adopt the motion of thanks to the Governor.

Ministry making and expansion have become delicate issues for chief ministers with the 97th amendment placing a ceiling on the size of ministries — 15 per cent of the size of the Assembly and 34 for Karnataka.

The ceiling has been posing a particular problem for Karnataka as it is one of the five States in the country with a bicameral legislature. Besides the 224-member Assembly, the State has 75-member Legislative Council. Unlike the recommendations of the first Administrative Reforms Commission which had given a small (one per cent) margin for States with the Upper House, the 97th amendment makes no such provision.

Claimants in BJP

The BJP has at least four senior members in the Legislative Council who are natural claimants for ministerships. At least two of them are senior to Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in the party and in politics. The BJP too cannot ignore claims for ministerships on the basis of caste and region.

Already there have been demands from sub-sects within the Veerashaiva caste for representation as that from the Panchamshalis.

One of the BJP MLAs caused some ripple in party circles by telling a television channel that the "BJP is a party of Lingayats and it cannot be forgotten."

The other problem facing the party to some extent is the fact of election of a large number of partymen to the Assembly from the districts of Shimoga, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

The Deve Gowda factor and the revival of the All India Progressive Janata Dal outside the State Legislature pose the problem of malcontents among JD (S) MLAs returning or crossing over to the two groups.

Seating arrangement

Already there is a separate seating arrangement in the Assembly for Mr. Siddaramaiah and the members supporting him, though they are technically part of the JD (S).

The former minister, P.G.R. Sindhia , who has refused to accept Mr. Kumaraswamy unlike Mr. Prakash, has to be seated separately .

He voted against the motion of confidence.

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