Karnataka trust vote LIVE: Congress MLAs meet ahead of BSY's floor test
Bengaluru, July 29: With the rebels disqualified and the House strength coming down, the numbers are clearly in favour of the BJP.
B S Yeddyurappa takes the floor test today after he was sworn in as Chief Minister on Friday. Will there be a twist in the tale, with some from JD(S) backing the BJP?
Stay tuned for more LIVE updates:
JD(S) leaders are in a huddle ahead of the crucial trust vote today. Former CM HD Kumaraswamy holds talks with JD(S) Supremo HD Deve Gowda.
Former CM HD Kumaraswamy visits JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda's residence to discuss the next course of action ahead of floor test.
Congress legislative party (CLP) meeting begins at Vidhana soudha. CLP leader Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Dinesh Gundu Rao, KJ George, Priyank Kharge, MB Patil, Eshwar Khandre and and other Congress MLAs are present.
Karnataka speaker KR Ramesh Kumar said that the 17 dissident MLAs - 14 from Congress and three from JD(S) - who have been disqualified can go to the Supreme Court against his decision. Rebel Congress MLA N Munirathna said that the speaker has played to a script.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah may by default become the leader of opposition when BSY will move the vote of confidence to prove BJP's majority
Karnataka: The newly sworn-in Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa arrives at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. He will face a trust vote today. pic.twitter.com/5g7hfKFybE
— ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2019
B S Yeddyurappa arrives at Vidhan Soudha. He will face a trust vote today.
CM BS Yediyurappa offers prayers at Anjaneya temple in Bengaluru ahead of the floor test.
BJP MLC Ravi Kumar accuses Speaker Ramesh Kumar’s of disqualifying the rebel MLAs as per the request of Congress and JD(S) leaders.
Congress is set to hold a meeting ahead of Floor test today. CLP meeting will be chaired by Siddaramaiah in Vidhana Soudha.
The BJP has issued a whip to all its 105 MLAs to be present in the House, when voting takes place. During a meeting of the BJP, apart from the trust vote, the Financial Appropriation Bill too was discussed.
Five disqualified rebel MLAs have returned to Bengaluru from Mumbai. Those who returned include, Byrathi Basavaraj, S T Somashekar, Munirathna, Shivaram Hebbar and MTB Nagaraj. Independent MLA H Nagesh too is back in the city.
The future of the JD(S) Congress coalition would depend on the decision of the high command of the latter, H D Deve Gowda said. The next challenge for the coalition would be the by-election in the wake of the disqualification of the 17 rebel MLAs. However this is subject to what the Supreme Court would have to say.
Congress is set to hold a meeting ahead of Floor test today. CLP meeting will be chaired by Siddaramaiah in Vidhana Soudha at around 9 am.
Senior BJP leader R Ashoka comments on the floor test today. The leader exudes confidence of winning the floor test.
The top of the Congress have termed the floor test taken by H D Kumaraswamy as a fiasco. The party feels that the manner in which the entire episode was handled has affected their strategy in Parliament. Where was the question to drag it on for four days, when the numbers were clearly not there, the Congress top brass asked the state leadership.
Yediyurappa has expressed confidence that he will sail through the trust vote. He also said that the finance bill will be tabled and no changes would be made to that.
In the SC: The rebels will hope that the Supreme Court will overturn the order of disqualification passed by the Speaker. The hearing on the matter is expected to come up today.
What the rebels lost: The rebels were disqualified as per the Tenth Schedule. They will not be allowed to contest a by-poll in the current assembly. They cannot be made ministers. They cannot be elected to the legislative council either. They can however contest the election for the next assembly.
Will JD(S) back BJP: There was a section of JD(S) MLAs who had suggested to H D Kumaraswamy that they back the BJP. While the BJP has said no thanks, the father son duo of Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda too have ruled out any such possibility.
The BJP is expected to have a smooth sailing in the assembly. The disqualification of the rebel MLAs has come as a boon as the strength of the House has been reduced, which will suit the BJP.
The BJP said that it did not indulge in any flock keeping exercise.
With the disqualification of the 17 MLAs, the strength of the assembly has been reduced to 208. 105 is the magic number and that is exactly the number of MLAs that the BJP has. Further the party has the support of one independent MLA and this takes the number to 106.
Section 144 has been imposed in a two-kilometre radius of Vidhana Soudha. This comes into force from 6 am on Monday and will be in place till midnight.
A total of 14 MLAs including Pratap G Patil, BC Patil, S Hebbar, ST Someshekhar, B Basvraj, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar, M TB Nagraj, Srimanth Patil from Congress. JD(S) MLAs which have been disqualified are AH Vishwanath, K Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda.
Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 14 rebel MLAs from Congress and JD(S) for anti-party activities under the anti-defection law. He had earlier disqualified three other MLAs under the law. Some BJP leaders said they were unlikely to bring a motion to remove Kumar on Monday. According to the law, such a motion can only be taken up after 14 days and needs a simple majority of the assembly to pass.
Meanwhile, the rebels said they will move the apex court on Monday to challenge their disqualification, which they argued was illegal. "We will question everything based on the prevailing law," said dissident JD(S) lawmaker AH Vishwanath.
With the disqualification of 17 MLAs from Congress and JD(S), the magic number for the simple majority is 105.
A lone Independent MLA has extended support to BJP.
With the disqualification, the half-way mark of the 225-member Assembly has gone down substantially, which will benefit BJP leader BS Yediyurappa.
With the 14 disqualification of 14 MLAs and three others on 25 July, the Assembly is short by 17 legislators.
The effective strength of the House without these 17 MLAs will be 208, including the Speaker. The half-way mark in the Assembly, thus, has gone down from 113 to 104, giving BJP an edge in the House at least till by-elections are held for the seats vacated by the MLAs.
In the bypolls that will be held later, if BJP wins at least eight seats, it will go past the majority mark of 113 on its own.
On 27 July, BS Yediyurappa took oath as Chief Minister succeeding HD Kumaraswamy, three days after the Congress-JDS coalition government crumbled on failing the floor test.
Accusations of horse-trading and in-fighting have defined Karnataka politics in recent months but if Yediyurappa manages to pass Monday's floor test, it could well be the beginning of political order.