CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday stressed the need to end the practice of commencing the annual state Assembly session with the Governor's address and said he would pursue a constitutional amendment in this regard.
Responding to his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah’s comment earlier in the day on the Governor's conduct in refusing to read the Cabinet-prepared address, Stalin said the only solution now was to end the practice of commencing the first annual Assembly session with the Governor's address.
"First Tamil Nadu. Then Kerala. Now Karnataka. The pattern is clear and deliberate. Governors refusing to read the speech prepared by state governments and behaving like party agents, undermining duly elected State governments," Stalin said in a post on social media.
Recalling his earlier statement, Stalin said the only solution now was to end the practice of commencing the first annual Assembly session with the governor's address.
"DMK will consult like-minded opposition parties across India and pursue a constitutional amendment in the very next parliamentary session to abolish this obsolete and irrelevant practice," Stalin, who is the president of DMK, said in the post.
Earlier, Siddaramaiah said in a social media post that addressing the joint session at the beginning of every year, and at the time of formation of a new government, was a constitutional duty of the Governor.
"Under Articles 176 and 163 of the Constitution, the Governor is bound to read the address prepared by the Council of Ministers and has no authority to substitute it with a speech of his own. This has been the established constitutional practice since the adoption of the Constitution," the Karnataka CM said.