Karnataka LIVE: Yeddyurappa government falls

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NEW DELHI: The Karnataka government led by B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned before going in for the floor test in the Vidhan Soudha here on Saturday. Yeddyurappa resigned after he wasn’t able to establish his majority.

In his speech inside Vidhan Soudha he said that he will fight till his last breath. The floor test was conducted on the instructions of the Governor of Karnataka, Vajubhai R. Vala after the Congress-JD(S) alliance also claimed the right to form the government in the state on the basis of the 117 seats it had as compared to the 104 seats that the BJP had.

Here are LIVE updates on the Karnataka floor test:

“BS Yeddyurappa is responsible for all the troubles that the MLAs had to go through. I am not in a hurry. We are waiting for an invite from the governor. If the Supreme Court had not intervened, there would have been horse-trading by the BJP,” says JD(S) HD Kumaraswamy.

“Today is a historic day in Indian politics. BS Yeddyurappa in Vidhan Soudha agreed to do a floor test. He couldn’t do it. This is a victory of democracy. There was immense pressure on the Governor by the central government. The Governor’s decision was a blot on Indian democracy. We should respect the people’s mandate. It is a responsibility of all politicians and democratic heads. PM Modi and his ministers are working against the democracy. BJP has no respect for the democracy,” says former CM Siddaramaiah .

“With the proceedings live and every citizen becoming a pro tem Speaker, democracy in Karnataka was saved — for the time bring. Poor Mr Yeddyurappa. When the puppeteers fail, the puppet falls and breaks,” tweets P Chidambaram.

“Democracy wins. Congratulations Karnataka. Congratulations Deve Gowda Ji, Kumaraswamy Ji, Congress and others. Victory of the ‘regional’ front,” tweets West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

Karnataka chief minister says “unholy JD(S)-Congress alliance is against the people’s mandate.”

“After so many years of Independence, we are not able to solve problems of farmers. Who won how many seats is not important. In the last five years, a lot has happened. I don’t do party politics, I do people’s politics. I have been humiliated. I will continue to fight for the farmers. All my life I fought for them, I want to save the state. I dedicate my life to farmers. Till my last breath I will work for them,” says BS Yeddyurappa.

Union Minister Ananth Kumar and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa are present in the CM chamber in Vidhana Soudha, reports news agency ANI.

‘Missing’ Congress legislator Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil allegedly kept captive were found in Goldfinch Hotel in Bengaluru with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA G. Somasekhar Reddy, according to sources.

Congress legislators Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil were not present in Vidhana Soudha. Suprisingly, mining baron Janardhan Reddy’s younger brother G. Somashekar Reddy was also not sighted.

Congress’s D K Shivkumar said, “Our numbers are intact. They have been elected with us and they will be with us. Hope income tax will give notices and inquire properly. We don’t want to disclose our strategy. We want to keep the house in order.”

“We asked the Supreme Court to change the pro tem speaker but apex court said that they will have to give a notice first and for that the floor test in Karnataka had to be postponed. Hence, it was decided that to live telecast the trust vote in the Karnataka Asembly because we did not want the process to be delayed. And we are happy that it will be transparent,” senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal says, adding ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’ (Who wins will be the king)

Pro tem speaker has said the trust vote will take place either through a show of hand, headcount or a voice vote.

“Live broadcast of floor test will be the best possible way to ensure transparency in the proceedings,”a bench comprising justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan said.

Earlier on Friday, Vala appointed Bopaiah as pro-tem speaker ahead of floor test in the state assembly, breaking the convention of appointing the senior-most legislator.

While hearing a petition of the alliance, the Supreme Court reduced the time given by the Governor to the BJP to prove simple majority in the house and asked the party to hold the trust vote on Saturday at 4 pm.

The decision was taken after the top court heard the arguments for and against the petition filed by the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) following Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R. Vala’s invitation to the BJP to form the government in the state.

The BJP is the single-largest party in the state assembly with 104 MLAs, however, they are still short of the simple majority mark of 111 by seven MLAs in the 221-member assembly whereas the Congress alliance has 117 MLAs, including two Independent legislators.

(ANI)