2019 Karnataka political crisis

In 2018 elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the BJP won the most seats—104,[3] but the Congress Party (INC) and Janata Dal (Secular) formed a coalition government with 120 out of 224 seats.[4] In the 2019 general election the BJP-led NDA won 26 out of 28 seats in Karnataka[5] while the INC-led UPA won two.

On 1 July, two members, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Anand Singh of the INC, submitted their resignations.[2] Over the next few days, 10 Congress and 3 JD(S) MLAs resigned.[6]

The reaction of the coalition government was to attempt to convince the MLAs who had submitted their resignations to rescind them.[6] Many of the MLAs fled to Mumbai, and directed the police not to permit Congress leaders to meet them.[6] The government also attempted to induce the MLAs to return by offering them cabinet posts; all 21 Congress ministers resigned on 8 July to ensure that a sufficient number of ministerial berths were available.[7] It also requested that the speaker should disqualify those who had resigned under anti-defection legislation.[8]

The speaker, K.R. Ramesh Kumar, did not immediately accept the resignations, on the grounds that he was constitutionally obliged to scrutinise them.[9] Consequently, some of those who had submitted their resignations approached the Supreme Court, which on 12 July agreed to hear the case on 16 July, whilst ordering the speaker not to disqualify any lawmakers or take any other action in this connection.[10]

At the 16 July hearing, Mukul Rohatgi, counsel for the MLAs who had submitted their resignations, said that the speaker should be ordered to rule immediately on the resignations.[11] Rohatgi argued that disqualification was a "mini-trial", and so a decision on the resignations should take priority over one on disqualification.[11] Rajeev Dhavan, who appeared for the Chief Minister of Karnataka, argued that the MLAs never met the speaker, and so the speaker should rule on their disqualifications first.[12] Ranjan Gogoi, the Chief Justice, said that the court would have to balance two competing claims: first, the excuse of resignation could not be used to circumvent anti-defection measures; but, second, claims of defection should not be used to prevent resignation.[12] He also said that the court would have to consider the extent to which it is permitted to issue directions to holders of other constitutional posts, such as that of the speaker of the assembly.[11]

Congress members in the Rajya Sabha forced adjournments twice in protest,[13] alleging bribery on the part of the BJP.[14] The BJP demanded that the government should resign.[15]

Eventually the Congress-JD(S) coalition was reduced to 101 seats, whilst the BJP retained 105. After 3 weeks of turmoil, HD Kumarasamy lost a trust vote and resigned. On 26 July 2019, B.S. Yediyurappa was sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka once again.

• Karnataka Legislative Assembly
• 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election
• 2019 Karnataka Legislative Assembly By-election
• 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
• 2020 Madhya Pradesh political crisis
• 2019 Maharashtra political crisis
• 2015 Bihar political crisis