The crisis in Karnataka appears to have blown over and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state appears to be happy that the report of Governor H R Bharadwaj endorsing President's rule has been rejected by the Centre.
However, the Union government will be sending an advisory to the Karnataka government with certain points.
Sources disclosed that the most important point in the advisory would be action against Karnataka Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah.
Sources in the Karnataka BJP, however, indicated that they would be ready to change the Speaker, so as to bring about a quietus to the issue. Moreover, making this change as per the directive in the advisory would also mean that the BJP can step up the ante for the recall of the Governor.
The Centre has sought this change following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court. The Speaker had seven months back disqualified 16 MLAs of which 11 were BJP rebels and 5 independents.
The timing of the disqualification was in question since it was done a couple of hours before the crucial trust vote that the BJP was seeking on the floor of the House.
The matter was challenged before the high court and when the MLAs failed to get relief, they approached the Supreme Court, which two weeks back reversed the order of the Speaker.
The rebels, however, made their peace with the BJP.
In the meantime, the Governor immediately shot off a recommendation to the Centre in which he proposed imposition of President's rule in Karnataka. The report was however, rejected by the government of India.
The government now will be issuing an advisory with certain guidelines and also observations regarding the recent events in Karnataka. While most points would be observations, the main recommendation would be the change of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Governor Bharadwaj, who has been under immense pressure to convene a session of the legislative assembly, is likely to issue an order to that effect.
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had sought for the convening of the session on June 2 but the governor had said that he would decide only once the government of India acted on his report.
The BJP had launched a state wide protest pressurising the Governor to convene a session of the legislative assembly. The BJP has also decided to keep up the heat demanding the recall of Bharadwaj, and hence, will go ahead with a change of the Speaker in order to strengthen their case.
