Cong top brass upset over floor test fiasco

The protracted, four-day-long floor test drama that unfolded in the Karnataka Assembly is said to have upset the Congress top brass, as it affected the party’s strategy in Parliament.

Top leaders are said to be unhappy with the state leaders for stretching the floor test instead of finishing it within a day despite knowing the end result very well. Apart from the party being pilloried on national television and social media, the floor test debacle is said to have put paid to the party’s hopes of cornering the saffron party over the alleged horse-trading in the Parliament.

The Congress had aggressively protested the “Operation Kamala” of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the initial days, with the party stalling the proceedings of the Upper House for the whole day on July 9.

Though the party was able to keep up the heat on the government on the issue with repeated disruptions till July 18, the day the CM HD Kumaraswamy moved a motion in the Assembly, it did not aggressively protest afterwards as the issue dragged on till July 23 (July 20 and 21 were not working days for the Assembly).

In the Congress party’s strategy meeting, some young MPs wanted to stall the proceedings in both the Houses, but senior leaders are learnt to have disapproved, arguing that the confidence motion should have been completed in one day.

Even on the issue of Karnataka governor writing two letters to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on July 18 and 19 to complete the motion early, senior leaders are said to have disagreed with the young MPs.

Senior leaders felt that since the onus on completing the confidence motion was always with the government, they decided not to protest in Parliament vociferously as they did earlier on some of the major issues earlier.

When the Rajya Sabha chair refused to admit a notice given by Karnataka MPs, seeking permission to discuss Karnataka political developments by suspending the Question Hour, the Congress did not protest strongly.

Senior Congress leaders were of the opinion that by stretching the confidence motion, the state government put the party in an embarrassing situation as it suffered severe public criticism.