Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Resigns From His Post, Cites Personal Reasons
The Speaker resigned from his post soon after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa won the trust vote through voice vote. On Monday, the Speaker declared that Yediyurappa has won the confidence motion.
Bengaluru, July 29: Karnataka Assembly speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Monday tendered his resignation from his post, 14 months after being unanimously elected as the Speaker. Thanking all the members of the house for their cooperation, Kumar said he is resigning from the prestigious post for personal reasons. "I am resigning from this august post as Speaker of the state legislative Assembly for personal reasons. I thank all the members for cooperating with me during my 14-month long tenure in this chair," Kumar told the legislators in Kannada while leaving the House.
Kumar resigned soon after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa won the trust vote through voice vote. On Monday, the Speaker declared that Yediyurappa has won the confidence motion. "Yediyurappa has won the confidence motion he moved by voice vote with more yes than no's. As there is a request for division of votes by the opposition parties, he has proved that he has majority support in the House," the Speaker said.
Earlier, Yediyurappa moved the motion to prove that he enjoyed majority legislative support in the House. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was however, confident of its fourth-time Chief Minister winning the floor test to prove majority in the state Assembly.
On Sunday, the Speaker had disqualified 14 rebel MLAs with immediate effect. The turn of events came days after the Congress-JD(S) government collapsed after losing the confidence motion. With this, the total of 17 rebel MLAs from both parties have been disqualified by the Speaker. The strength of the assembly, however, reduced to 208 members.
At the legislature party meeting on Sunday, the BJP had issued a whip to all its lawmakers for attending the day-long Assembly session convened from 11 a.m. and voting in favour of the trust vote and passing the finance bill of the state budget for fiscal 2019-20.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 29, 2019 12:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).