Almost a week after facing an embarrassment in the Karnataka Assembly, the Indian National Congress on Tuesday sacked 14 rebel legislators from the grand old party for bringing down the coalition government in the state. All the suspended MLAs defied the party’s whip and did not participate in the confidence motion that led to the crushing defeat of the coalition government in the trust vote.
All the 14 rebels have tendered their resignation from the Karnataka Assembly early this month that has started the crisis for the coalition government led by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
The party came down heavily on these rebels days after the rebels were disqualified from the state assembly. The All India Congress Committee has also approved the proposal sent by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee for the disqualification of the rebels.
READ: Karnataka: Three rebels to approach SC against Speaker’s decision to disqualify them
The then Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had on Sunday disqualified 14 legislators, 11 from Congress and 3 from JD-S, till 2023. They also barred all of them from contesting the by-polls.
11 Congress leaders that faced action by the then Speaker include Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Shivram Hebbar, S T Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil.
While last week three other rebel MLAs — Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar — were disqualified on Thursday.
The disqualification of 17 MLAs from the House reduced the majority mark making it a cakewalk for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to prove its majority.
HD Kumaraswamy led coalition government fell last week after it suffered a defeat in the floor test of the assembly. With 20 MLAs defying the party whip and were absent for the floor test, the strength of the 225-member Karnataka Assembly was reduced to 204 with 103 as the halfway mark for a simple majority. JD-S and Congress with 99 votes got defeated by BJP’s 105 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran leader BS Yeddyurappa on Friday took oath as the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka three days almost Congress-JDS coalition government collapsed after facing defeat in the trust vote in Assembly. He had on Monday also won the confidence motion in the Assembly.
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