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Even as Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa gets ready for a trust vote on Monday, Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday disqualified 14 MLAs belonging to the Congress and JD(S) under the anti-defection law.
He has disqualified them till the expiry of the current Assembly’s term, in 2023. “I have used my judicial conscience,” he said while pronouncing the decision.
The move came after the Congress and the JD(S), whose coalition government collapsed on July 23 after a rebellion that saw 17 MLAs staying away from the House, petitioned the Speaker to disqualify their errant members under the Anti-defection law.
On Thursday, the Speaker had disqualified two Congress MLAs (Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli) and one Independent MLA (R Shankar). The 14 MLAs disqualified on Sunday are H Vishwanath, Narayana Gowda and K Gopalaiah of the JD(S), and Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, Munirathna, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj and Shrimanth Patil of the Congress.
With this, the effective strength of the 225-member Assembly has been reduced to 208. The half-way mark is 105.
Yediyurappa is slated to face the trust vote on Monday. Now that the simple majority is 105, which happens to be the strength of the BJP in the House, Yediyurappa is expected to sail through the trust vote. The party additionally has the support of independent MLA H Nagesh, taking its strength to 106.
However, today’s development leaves the BJP under tremendous pressure to ensure victory in the majority of the 17 seats to remain in power for the remainder of the 15th Assembly term.
Assembly session
“We have informed all the MLAs that the session will be convened at 11 am on Monday,” said Speaker Kumar, adding that the Speaker’s office has worked through the weekend.
“Thus, I was forced to decide on the matter of resignation and disqualification of the remaining MLAs today itself. On Monday we will be busy with the Assembly session,” he added.
With the strength of the 225-member Assembly reduced to 208, and the halfway mark at 105, Chief Minister Yediyurappa is expected to win the trust vote
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