Karnataka CM Yediyurappa to seek trust vote at 10 AM today

BS Yediyurappa, who took oath as Karnataka’s chief minister for the fourth time on Friday (July 26), will seek the trust vote at 10 a.m. today.

He had said earlier that he will prove the majority on Monday (July 29) and pass the Finance Bill.

Speaker Ramesh Kumar on Sunday (July 28) disqualified 14 rebel MLAs — 11 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) — under the anti-defection law till the end of the current term of the House in 2023. Kumar had also disqualified three other rebel MLAs on Thursday (July 25).

The disqualifications came a day ahead of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa seeking the trust vote in the assembly to prove his majority. Despite their disqualifications, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa expressed confidence in proving his majority in the House on Monday (July 29).

Rebel JD(S) MLA A H Vishwanath, who was disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday (July 28), said the decision was “against the law” and he and other aggrieved legislators would approach the Supreme Court for redressal on Monday (July 29).

“The disqualification is against the law…just under a whip served on them, you cannot force the legislators to come to the House,” Vishwanath told PTI over phone. “The Speaker has disqualified 20 members of the legislature on the grounds that they have not attended the House…so against this decision pronounced by the Speaker, we are approaching the Supreme Court on Monday,” the MLA said from an undisclosed location.

In Bengaluru, another disqualified rebel MLA from Maski, Pratap Gowda Patil asked voters in a video message not to panic and said they were confident of emerging victorious in the Supreme Court.

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“Dear voters and my well-wishers, Speaker has ordered my disqualification from the Assembly… there is no need to panic, we are challenging this in the Supreme Court. I’m confident that we will be victorious in the court,” Patil said.

Speaking to a local news channel, another disqualified MLA Munirathana said they were aware that they would be disqualified as Congress leaders had threatened them about it.

“… our own party leaders had said we will disqualify if you if (you) go out… we are not small children or we have not gone out without knowledge of others,” he said, adding that they would face the action legally.

Alleging that many Congress leaders wanted this coalition government to end, but had not acted on it, Munirathna alleged that leaders within his party did not even cooperate with Kumaraswamy to run the government smoothly.

“They (Congress leaders) are playing a game now, to show that they were loyal to JD(S)…we will reveal everything to people in coming days,” he added.

Also read: Yediyurappa says 100 per cent confident of winning trust vote

Shivaram Hebbar, who represented Yellapur, alleged in a Facebook post that the Speaker’s decision to disqualify the rebels was done in a partisan manner under pressure and the matter would reach the Supreme Court soon.

Expressing confidence of getting justice from the apex court, he said he has complete faith in his voters and would soon submit himself before the people’s court.

“I will soon reveal to you the reasons for my decisions and will take further steps after consulting you,” he told his voters and supporters.

The Congress and JDS, whose government collapsed on Tuesday (July 23) after rebellion by a section of their MLAs, had made petitions to the Speaker to disqualify their errant members.