Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy tendered his resignation after the Congress-JD(S) government failed to survive trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday, with the coalition falling short of majority in the 224-member House. The trust vote was necessitated after 15 MLAs resigned, plunging the 14-month-old government to a minority.
Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar announced that 99 MLAs had voted in favour of the motion and 105 against it. The motion was defeated, he said. Congress leader Siddharamaiah has sought for the disqualification of the rebel MLAs who violated the whip and abstained from the trust vote.
BJP leaders will now meet Governor Vajubhai Vala to stake claim to form the government. Party leader Nirani said the swearing-in of ministers is likely to take place on July 25.
As party supporters celebrated the collapse of the state government, former chief minister and BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa called it the “victory of democracy.” “People were fed up with Kumaraswamy government. I want to assure people of Karnataka that a new era of development will start now,” he was quoted as saying.
The Congress, meanwhile, has alleged the BJP of indulging in horse-trading. “The coalition government was subverted by the nefarious joint efforts of the Central Government, Governor, State Government of Maharashtra and BJP leadership. BJP facilitated this dirty-dealing political drama by offering a huge amount of black money and ministerial berths to the defected MLAs,” AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement.
Kumaraswamy moved the trust vote on July 18 but the process of conducting the vote had been affected by procedural aspects of the legislature. The vote was conducted on Tuesday after three missed deadlines set by the Governor. While 105 MLAs voted for the Opposition BJP in the House, the ruling coalition had 99 MLAs on its side. BSP’s lone MLA in the Assembly, who was directed by party supremo Mayawati to attend the proceedings, also opted to stay out. In a tweet, Mayawati said the party has expelled N. Mahesh for flouting BSP’s high command.
Even as deadlines kept delaying, efforts of the coalition government to convince the rebel MLAs to participate in the trust vote didn’t bear any fruits. At least 13 rebels in Mumbai had repeatedly asserted they would not budge from their decision to resign.
The political crisis in the state began with the resignation of at least 15 MLAs-12 from Congress and three from the JD(S), leading to a three-week-long stalemate. The rebel MLAs had moved the Supreme Court against the Speaker’s delay in accepting their resignations. On July 17, the top court left it to the Speaker to decide on the resignations but ordered that they should not be compelled to attend the proceedings of the state Assembly.
