Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yeddyurappa resigned from his post ahead of the floor test.
BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered a setback after the chief minister of Karnataka resigned minutes before a vote of confidence in the assembly.
The Supreme Court ordered the vote when the opposition Congress complained the BJP lacked the necessary support.
The BJP won 104 of the 222 seats in recently concluded state polls, but fell short of a majority by 8 seats.
The Congress with 78 MLAs, the JDS with 36 and three others were also individually not in a position to form the government.
The Congress emerged as the second largest party and declared an alliance with a regional party, JDS, which won enough seats to give their coalition a majority in the new assembly.
After making the announcement, BS Yeddyurappa went on to meet and shake hands with JDS chief Deve Gowda and senior Congress leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad.
BS Yeddyurappa gave an emotional speech in the House and said he was not moving the motion, but instead would go to the Governor to submit his resignation.
BS Yeddyurappa’s resignation comes after multiple allegations by the Congress that he and his party members tried to buy out MLAs offering them ministerial posts and crores of rupees as rewards for allegiance.
Rahul Gandhi gives his best wishes to Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah and Deve Gowda.“My message to the Prime Minister is that he is not bigger than India. And I doubt he will understand,”Rahul says.
BS Yeddyurappa says he will voluntarily support the Congress-JD(S) government. “I travel across the state, we will win all 228 seats in 2019. I thank people for their support in the election. I respect the mandate of the people for the development of the State.”
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah termed the resignation of BS Yeddyurappa without facing the floor test as “a victory of the Constitution of India and rule of law”.
