K'taka: Ahead of trust vote, 5 disqualified Cong MLAs return to Bengaluru

Five rebel Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, arrived here from Mumbai in the early hours of Monday, 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.

Kumar on Sunday disqualified with immediate effect 14 rebel MLAs, days after the Congress-JD(S) government collapsed after losing the confidence motion.

This is in addition to the three dissident legislators he had disqualified on July 25.

With the significant development, a total of 17 rebel MLAs from both parties have been disqualified by the Speaker. All the disqualified MLAs cannot contest elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who took office last week, will table the confidence motion in the Assembly.

Ahead of the vote of confidence, the city's police commissioner Alok Kumar on Saturday issued a prohibitory order to impose Section 144 within a two-kilometre radius of Vidhana Soudha from 6 am on July 29 to midnight of July 30.