Kumaraswamy govt falls as it loses confidence vote in assembly

: The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka collapsed on Monday after the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was defeated in the assembly, ending his 14-month long turbulent tenure.

Capping a three-week long high-voltage intense power struggle triggered by a raft of resignations by rebel lawmakers, that pushed the government to the brink of collapse, the motion was defeated with 99 members voting for the motion and 105 against it.

"The motion moved by the Chief Minister has fallen through," Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar announced.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy watched the proceedings sitting in a pensive mood after a spirited reply to the debate.

With rebellion exploding in its face, the coalition government was hanging by a thread for the last three weeks, with the Supreme Court verdict that rebel law makers ought not to be compelled to attend the session tipping the scales in favour of the BJP.

Outwitted in the numbers game and defeat staring in his face with the rebel MLAs in no mood to step back from their position not to attend the assembly session, Kumaraswamy gave indications of quitting in the initial remarks while winding up the debate on confidence motion.

"I am ready to happily sacrifice this position" he said appearing resigned to the fate of his ministry, as the assembly debated the confidence motion for four days.

Twenty one MLAs-- Congress-JDS (17), BSP (1), Independents (2) skipped the proceedings, reducing the effective strength of the House to 204.

The magic figure required was 103.

In his reply, Kumaraswamy said discussions were on why he had not resigned and was sticking to the chair.

Sounding philosophical, he said that when the 2018 assembly polls results were out, he had plans to quit politics.

"My political entry itself was all of a sudden and unexpected".

Kumaraswamy lashed out at the BJP for repeatedly trying to topple his government and told the saffron party that its government would not last long and in the event of collapse, it is better to go for elections.

"First bomb will explode in ministry formation," he said.

Asserting that his government was not shameless, he asked, "what wrong have we committed. We tried to create history.

We have worked honestly to provide people friendly government."
Chief Minister's seat is not a permanent to anyone."
He said the 15 MLAs resigning was nothing but "wholesale trade."
Siddaramaiah alleged that "Rs 20,25 and 30 crore" were offered to lure the MLAs and asked "Where did this money come from?"
On the next step, Yeddyurappa said an appropriate decision would be taken "as early as possible."