Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa won the trust vote on Monday on the floor of the Assembly paving way for further power consilidation of the three-day old BJP Government in the State.
Soon after the successful Confidence Motion by the BJP Government, Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar announced his resignation. The trust vote process lasted less than an hour after the House met.
Kumar’s decision to step down as Speaker was anticipated given the BJP’s plan to bring in no-confidence against him if he refused to resign on his own. In fact his decision to disqualify 17 rebel MLAs helped the Yediyurappa Government to sail through the motion in the numbers game.
The Speaker declared that the one-line motion expressing confidence in the Ministry headed by Yediyurappa had been adopted by the House.
On the eve of the trust vote, Kumar had disqualified 11 Congress MLAs and three JD(S) lawmakers till the end of the current term of the House in 2023, in addition to three earlier, bringing down the majority mark to 105, equivalent of the BJP’s current strength of 105, besides the support of an Independent.
The Congress has 66 members, JD(S) 34, the Speaker one (who has a casting vote in case of a tie) and one expelled BSP member who was thrown out of the party for violating its directive to support the HD Kumaraswamy Government during the trust vote on July 23. After the disqualification of 17 rebel MLAs that reduced the effective strength of the House, the Opposition Congress and JD(S) did not press for division.
“I have decided to quit,” Kumar said and handed over his resignation letter to the Deputy Speaker Krishna Reddy. Kumar said as the Speaker, he had worked according to his “conscience” and in accordance with the Constitution. “I have upheld the dignity of office to the best of my ability,” he added.
Moving the confidence motion, Yediyurappa said he would not indulge in “politics of vengeance” and believed in the “forget and forgive principle.” Even though Modi-Shah have installed younger people in other States where the BJP took over, in Karnataka they have accepted 76-year-old Yediyurappa for the throne.
“My becoming the CM is according to expectations of the people,” said Yediyurappa, who succeeded Kumaraswamy whose 14-month-old Government collapsed under the weight of a rebellion by a section of the coalition MLAs.
Yediyurappa said he has assumed office in a difficult situation with the State facing drought. “The administrative machinery has collapsed... my priority is to bring it back on track,” he said.
Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah said the Yediyurappa Government was “unconstitutional and immoral” and expressed doubts about its longevity.
“You have no mandate of the people,” Siddaramaiah told Yediyurappa. “Where is the mandate in your favour? Where is the majority? Yediyurappa has become the Chief Minister with just 105 members,” Siddaramaiah said.
“Let us see how long you will be (the Chief Minister) ... I want you to be (CM) for the full term but I don’t think you will be able to complete it (the term),” Siddaramaiah told Yediyurappa.
JDS leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy took exception to Yediyurappa’s charge that the administrative machinery had collapsed and said it was a “baseless” one that did not behove the Chief Minister. “I won’t comment on the ways you have come to power..,” Kumaraswamy said, adding, “you have come to power through conspiracy.”
He asked the Chief Minister to reveal how the administrative machinery had collapsed. “You have come to power through politics of conspiracy... at least now save democracy,” Kumaraswamy told Yediyurappa, adding his party would not try to destabilise the BJP Government. He said the JD(S) opposed the confidence motion as BJP had come to power through “unconstitutional means.” The House also passed the Appropriation Bill, seeking a vote on account for three months.
The Finance Bill (Appropriation Bill) needed to be passed “urgently”, as otherwise “we will not be able to draw funds even to pay salaries (of Government employees),” Yediyurappa had said on Sunday.