Short of numbers, BSY resigns without taking trust vote

In a day of fast paced developments with dramatic twists and turns, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa made an emotional speech on the floor of the Assembly before announcing his decision to step down as numbers were not in his favour in the newly-constituted House.

He chose to resign instead of facing the trust vote. “I am going to resign as chief minister....I will travel across the state non-stop. In 2019, I promise, we will win 28 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats. We will also win 150 seats in the Assembly and convert Karnataka into a model state”’ he told the Assembly in his 20-minute speech.

He immediately went to the Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala drawing curtains on the three-day government, the shortest in the history of Karnataka.

The BJP, had emerged as the single largest party in the May 12 Assembly polls, with 104 seats will now have to sit in the Opposition.

Yeddyurappa slammed the Congress-JD(S) tie-up and stating that those who were swearing on the names of “each other’s fathers” had now come together to form this unholy alliance.

The day began with the BJP camp exuding confidence about winning the trust vote but as the hours passed it looked clear that the party will fail to muster support of seven additional MLAs required to cross the magic number of 111 required to the form the government.

Both the JD(S) and the Congress charged the BJP of trying to poach its elected members and had ferried them to a resort in Hyderabad. They returned to Bengaluru in the wee hours of Saturday just hours before the floor test.

A shaky and restless Congress MLA Anand Singh, whose whereabouts were not known, was brought into the Assembly by former minister D K Shivakumar minutes before Yeddyurappa began his speech.

Yeddyurappa gave enough indications of his resignation right at the beginning of his speech when he said, “I have seen the struggle of farmers, gave land to them, wiped their tears. I wanted to waive their loans up to Rs 1 lakh...but...”

He recalled his struggles as a politician, and said how he helped build the BJP, which once had just two MLAs. Now it has 104, he said.

“I went to the houses of poor, stayed with them. I have faced trial by fire all my life, but I will serve my people till my last breath,” Yeddyurappa said.