India Politics

Yeddyurappa resigns as Karnataka Chief Minister, will fight till last breath, Says BS Yeddyurappa

Yeddyurappa resigns as Karnataka Chief Minister, will fight till last breath, Says BS Yeddyurappa

BS Yeddyurappa today resigns as Chief Minister just before a trust vote that, many said, he had a good chance of losing. Till an hour before the Supreme Court-ordered floor test, there was commotion over two Congress MLAs who were missing from the assembly in the morning. The Congress alleged that they had been held captive by a BJP desperate for numbers, and also released a series of audio tapes that it claimed proved that attempts were being made to bribe lawmakers. In an emotional speech before his resignation, Yeddyurappa said it was his dream to be Chief Minister at a time PM Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister.

The opposition Parties Congress and Janata Dal-Secular have accused the BJP of trying to bribe and threaten their lawmakers/MLAs. The Congress has released several audio tapes as proof. Pratap Gowda Patil and Anand Singh, the two Congress lawmakers who had been missing for days, reached the Karnataka assembly just before the trust vote and took oath as the members.

Earlier in the day, the Honourable Supreme Court rejected the petition filed by Congress-JDS alliance challenging the appointment of BJP’s KG Bopaiah as pro tem Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly. On Friday, Governor Vala appointed Bopaiah as pro-tem speaker ahead of floor test in the state assembly, breaking the convention of appointing the senior-most legislator.

Contending that Bopaiah was not the senior most legislator, the alliance represented by senior Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal, maintained that Bopaiah had a “tainted past” as he as the then speaker had tried to save a previous government of Yeddyurappa, who faced corruption charges, in 2011. The top court rejected this petition. However, it ordered live telecast of the floor test, which was scheduled for 4 pm. Earlier in the day, Yeddyurappa with co-legislator B. Sreeramulu resigned as Lok Sabha members after taking oath as the MLAs of the state Legislative Assembly. The Supreme court had yesterday ordered a floor test in the Karnataka Assembly at 4 pm today, drastically slashing the 15-day window given by the Governor to Yeddyurappa to prove majority.

About the author

Abhishek Lohia

Abhishek Lohia was a Sports and Political Writer working for Newsfolo and is no longer associated with the organization.

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