Karnataka floor test live updates: Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar announces resignation

Five rebel Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by Karnataka speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, arrived in Bengaluru from Mumbai on Monday morning, ahead of the trust vote by the BS Yediyurappa government. The five MLAs- Munirathnam Naidu, Byrathi Basavaraj, MTB Nagaraj, ST Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport amid tight security, ahead of the trust vote in the Assembly which will be held later in the day. The MLAs had been camping in Mumbai after they withdrew support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition headed by HD Kumaraswamy.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah may by default become the leader of the opposition on Monday when chief minister BS Yediyurappa moves the vote of confidence to prove BJP’s majority in the legislative assembly. "The party high command has asked Siddaramaiah to be the opposition leader. But his continuation in the post will all depend on party legislators," a senior Congress leader said, stressing on the significance of a CLP meeting on Monday.

The 17 dissident MLAs —14 from Congress and three from JD(S)—who have been disqualified by speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, are nursing a deep sense of victimhood and have begun exploring options to salvage their political careers. In private, many say they have been let down by their parties and the BJP, which had assured them of plum posts in the new government. But the biggest blow, they say, came from Kumar, who has barred them from contesting elections till 2023. The obvious first step is to challenge the speaker’s order in the Supreme Court and the rebels are deliberating whether to move a petition collectively or in batches.

The decision of speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to disqualify 17 Congress-JD(S) rebel MLAs has kicked off a debate on whether the order is contrary to Supreme Court directions. The SC, acting on petitions filed by rebel MLAs seeking a direction to the speaker to accept their resignations, had ordered that the rebels should not be forced to attend House proceedings and that they are free to attend or abstain. The court had also said it would decide the issue of whether disqualification has precedence over resignation.

JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda revealed that the Congress high command will decide on the future of the alliance the two parties had formed, and that Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah — and not his son and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy — would be leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly.Soon after the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, top leaders of the Congress had indicated that it could part ways with the JD(S) and concentrate on building the state unit of the party. However, KPCC chief Dinesh Gundurao insisted the state unit would follow instructions of the party’s high command on the matter.