Bengaluru: A day ahead of the confidence motion in the Assembly, Speaker Ramesh Kumar on Sunday disqualified 14 more rebel MLAs from Congress and JD(S).
With the disqualification of the 14 MLAs and three other legislators on July 25, the effective strength of the 225-member Assembly has come down to 208, which also includes the Speaker.
Currently, BJP has 105 members supported by an Independent, while Congress and JDS have 66 and 35 MLAs, respectively. The BSP has just one member in the House.
Thus, for any party to prove its majority, the half-way mark has come down from 113 and 104, a clear advantage for BJP.
Two rebel MLAs B Nagendra from Congress and BSP's N Mahesh had abstained from voting in the confidence motion moved by former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
If both the legislators skip the floor test on Monday, then it will be still an advantage for BJP as they already have the required number to prove the majority on the floor of the House.
The Speaker will vote only in the case of a tie.
The Speaker on Sunday disqualified 11 rebel Congress MLAs. The disqualified legislators include -- Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Shivanand Hebbar, ST Somashekar, Shrimant Patil, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj.
The three MLAs disqualified are from JD(S) which include -- AH Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda and Gopalaiah.
On Thursday, three rebel Congress MLAs -- R Shankar, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli were disqualified by the Speaker.
All the disqualified MLAs cannot contest elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly.
Earlier this month, the rebel MLAs had pulled out from the Congress-JD(S) coalition, plunging the coalition government into a minority in the 225-member Assembly, which led to a political crisis in the state.
After days of high-drama and heated debates, the government fell on Tuesday as it lost the trust vote in the House. Following the defeat, Kumaraswamy submitted his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala at Raj Bhavan, along with his cabinet ministers.
On Friday, Yediyurappa took oath as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka for the fourth time.
