New twist rocks Karnataka ahead of Yeddyurappa's trust vote

Bengaluru : A day ahead of BS Yeddyurappa's trust vote in Karnataka Assembly on Monday, the speaker K R Ramesh disqualified 14 rebel MLAs with immediate effect till end of the term of the assembly.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, the speaker announced disqualification of 14 rebel MLAs - Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, AH Vishwanath, K Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda and Shrimanth Patil.

Eleven of the lawmakers disqualified are from the Congress and three from the Janata Dal (S). The resignation of the MLAs which began on July 6, eventually led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy government on July 23 after a trust vote.

“The way I’m being pressured to deal with the situation being a speaker. All these things have pushed me into a sea of depression,” Ramesh said just before announcing the disqualifications.

“I had 13 resignations petition left before me and 14 disqualification petitions. I have considered all the petitions before me. I had asked the members who resigned to appear before me to convince me that their resignations were voluntary and genuine. They failed to do so,” he said after announcing the names of the MLAs who were disqualified.