BJP govt in K'taka wins 2nd trust vote

Karnataka’s B S Yeddyurappa today became India’s first chief minister to win a confidence vote twice in the same week.

He had won on Monday in a controversial voice vote, after the legislative assembly’s Speaker had disqualified 16 members set to vote against him. Today, his Bharatiya Janata Party government won by a 106-100 margin. With the House reduced from 224 members to 208, the party needed a minimum of 105 votes.

The winning tally included a vote from a nominated member and independent, Varthur Prakash. Two members abstained from voting, Manappa Vajjal of the ruling party and M C Ashwath from the opposition Janata Dal (S). All 73 of the Congress party voted against, as did 27 of the 28 from the JD(S).

Yeddyurappa’s government, the first BJP one to come to power in South India, was sworn in at end-May 2008.

Today, a voice vote was first called and then Speaker K G Bopaiah called for a formal division (meaning, voting and counting). An ailing member, Eshanna Gulagannavar, came in a wheelchair to vote in favour of the motion. Bopaiah announced the result to much jubilation in the ruling party benches.

Unlike Monday’s pandemonium, today’s trust vote was conducted in an orderly manner. The state governor, H R Bhardwaj, had advised the CM to have a second confidence vote, due to the controversy surrounding the first one.

The fate of the result is, however, subject to the judgment of the High Court here on the petitions of the 16 rebels, who comprise 11 of the BJP and five independents, against their disqualification. The next hearing is on the coming Monday, on the independents. The two-judge bench bench, of Chief Justice J S Khehar and N Kumar, had earlier reserved its judgment in the disqualification case of the 11 BJP rebels, after rival counsels concluded arguments on Tuesday.

The bench had rejected the five independents’ plea to be allowed to attend the session and give their votes in a sealed cover to the court.

Bopaiah had disqualified the rebels on Monday, in response to a petition by the ruling party after they withdrew support to the government, expressing lack of faith in the leadership of Yeddyurappa.