BJP MLAs on dharna tonight inside Karnataka Assembly

The state unit BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa on Thursday announced to stage a night-long sit-in with party MLAs in the Assembly to protest against Congress-JDS government dragging its feet on trust vote.

"This government has lost the majority. They tried to drag on the issue and tried to provoke us but we acted with patience. We will continue to press for a trust vote on the motion. We will stage night-long dharna (on Thursday) in the House," Yeddyurappa told reporters here.

The BJP leader's announcement came close on the heels of the adjournment of the Assembly in the midst of a debate on the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Yeddyurappa also said that the Congress-JDS government was not ready for trust vote as the Chief Minister does not have the confidence of the people as well as the Assembly.

"All the procedures and rules governing the confidence motion were thrown to the winds. We are demanding to vote on the motion but the Chief Minister is reluctant to take up the motion as he has confirmed himself that he has lost the confidence of the House and the people. Everybody knows Congress-JDS combine has only 98 MLAs, but we have 105," he said.

Earlier, Governor Vijubhai Vala directed Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to complete the business of trust vote by the end of the day.

Yeddyurappa said the Speaker failed to give any ruling as per the Governor's direction on the motion.

"Though I cannot blame the Speaker, public perception is that procedures are not happening according to the rules and are biased. Let us wait for the decision the Speaker takes over the Governor's letter and other issues," he added.

As per the register of attendance, 18 MLAs were not present in the Assembly as the House took up the vote of confidence for debate.

The MLAs who were absent include Byrathi Basavaraj, Munirathna, S T Somashekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Roshan Baig, Srimanth Patil, Anand Singh, B Nagendra, R Shankar, K Gopalaiah, Narayana Gowda, M T B Basavaraj, BC Patil, H Vishwanath, Mahesh Kumthahalli, Prathap Gouda Patil, Dr Sudhakar and Shivaram Hebbar.

Sixteen MLAs from the ruling coalition including thirteen Congress and three JDS MLAs have resigned.

BJP has 105 MLAs in the 225-member state Assembly including one nominated MLA. The halfway mark is 113.