Congress-JD(S) coalition gov't defeated, BJP wins by 6 trust votes

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy during the assembly session at Vidhana Soudha/ PTI

Bengaluru: The Congress JD(S) coalition government was defeated on the floor of the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday night. The confidence motion moved by the chief minister Kumaraswamy got 99 votes as against 105 of the opposition.

Earlier in the day, Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday hit out at the BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa stating that he has been engineering 'horse-trading" of MLAs since last year after his party was given 15 days time by the Governor to prove majority in the House.

"Yeddyurappa started engineering 'horse-trading of MLAs' since last year after his party was given 15 days time by the governor to prove majority in the House. This is generally not done in a hung House. This is why SC reduced the time given to 24 hours. He could not prove majority, he had to step down," he said said in the Assembly.

Participating in the discussion on the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, the former chief minister said that fortunately if the SC had not reduced the time granted "the murder that has happened today would've happened then".

He said Yeddyurappa had failed to prove majority in the House then Kumaraswamy became chief minister based on constitution and laws.

"This is not the first coalition in Karnataka and country. There have been 4 coalitions in the state. When Yeddyurappa became the chief minister, even he did not have a majority. BJP had won only 110 seats and formed the government with the support of six Independents."

He accused the BJP of adopting anti-democratic tendencies and said: "We must not try and uproot democracy for greed. You (Yeddyurappa) should have been a strong opposition with 104 MLAs. You could have held the government accountable. But you insisted on such dubious measures."

"This resignation drama was changed with the 35th constitutional amendment. After this the Speaker got discretion because many were coerced, lured into resigning," he said.

He asserted no court has jurisdiction till the Speaker decides on resignations of MLAs as there are two grounds for disqualification and voluntary resignation of party membership.

"In the Ravi Nayak case, a differentiation was made between resignation and voluntary resignation. This is why when the 15 MLAs petitioned the SC it did not fetter the Speaker. The speaker also has the right to disqualify, nobody can meddle in this. No court has jurisdiction till the Speaker decides. This is why I raised a point of order. It said no member can be compelled to attend the house. That's why I raised the point of order. What happened to X Schedule? It is still in existence, no amendment has happened in parliament. It is enforceable. You (speaker) have rightfully taken the decision that we can issue the whip."

"In the TN case they didn't violate whip but they gave the Governor a letter withdrawing support. But the Speaker said by their conduct they had relinquished membership of their party. There was no whip there, the MLAs hadn't even resigned. Their conduct led to their disqualification," he said.

The 13-month-old Congress-JDS government slumped into a minority earlier this month following the resignations of 16 dissident MLAs from the Assembly.

The Assembly has 225 members, including one nominated MLA. The halfway mark in the House is 113.

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