BANGALORE: The Congress, the principal Opposition party in the Legislative Assembly, which had submitted a notice on moving a motion of no confidence against Speaker Krishna, on Tuesday failed to move the motion.

Amid noisy scenes and continuing dharna, Deputy Speaker N.Y. Gopalakrishna asked Leader of the Opposition N. Dharam Singh to move the motion three times. With the Opposition failing to respond, Mr. Gopalakrishna announced that the motion had been rejected even as Congress members shouted anti-government slogans and staged a dharna before the Chair.

The Congress dharna opposing the suspension of its members in the Legislative Council entered the fifth day on Tuesday. With Congress members continuing to raise anti-government slogans, Mr. Gopalakrishna adjourned the House.

When the House re-assembled, Araga Jnanendra, who was presiding, allowed Visveshwara Hegde Kageri (BJP) to move a resolution thanking Governor T.N. Chaturvedi for his address to the joint session of the legislature on January 25. T. Rajanna (JD-S) seconded it. The House passed the resolution.

Even as the dharna continued, the Chair completed formalities such as submission of papers by Ministers and presentation of reports after which Mr. Jnanendra adjourned the House.

Meetings held earlier in the day by Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs M.P. Prakash and Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy with Congress leaders failed to end the stalemate.

Mr. Prakash appealed to the Congress not to go ahead with the no-confidence motion against the Speaker, as such an instance was unheard of in the history of the legislature.

In a day of chaos in the Assembly, senior Congress, including Mr. Dharam Singh, M. Mallikarjun Kharge and the former Speaker Ramesh Kumar were standing in the well of the House.

Council adjourned

The Legislative Council was adjourned on Tuesday till March 16 by acting Chairman N. Thippanna. Prior to that, the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the joint session of the legislature was passed unanimously in the absence of Opposition members.

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