KR Ramesh Kumar, the speaker of the Karnataka Assembly on Sunday disqualified 14 rebel legislators belonging to the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). The move comes a day before the crucial trust vote and it has brought down the majority mark in the assembly within the reach of the newly formed BJP government.
The MLAs have been disqualified for defying their parties to attend the House on July 23 when former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy moved the confidence motion and lost by 6 votes.
KR Ramesh Kumar had, on Thursday, disqualified three MLAs and as of Sunday, the strength of the assembly has come down to 208 while the BJP government is very much likely to face the trust vote on Monday in which new Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has to prove his majority on the floor.
The BJP had staked claim to form the government after the Karnataka coalition government of the Congress and the JD(S) failed to win the trust vote last week.
“At the cabinet meeting held soon after I took oath as Chief Minister, I decided to go for floor test in the Assembly on Monday at 10 a.m., to prove majority,” Yediyurappa had told a press conference on Thursday.