BJP's BS Yeddyurappa To Take Oath At 6 pm As Karnataka CM

Earlier on Thursday, Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar disqualified two rebel Congress legislators and an Independent lawmaker with immediate effect.

(PTI)

NEW DELHI: Days after the fall of Congress-JDS government in Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa on Friday arrived at Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government. Yeddyurappa, who is waiting in the wings for a fourth term as chief minister, said "I will request him to hold oath ceremony today itself."

BS Yeddyurappa, BJP, #Karnataka: I am going to meet the Governor today at 10am to stake claim to form the government and I will request him to hold oath ceremony today itself. pic.twitter.com/8cSQ5p8Ph2

— ANI (@ANI) July 26, 2019

Yeddyurappa for the last couple of days had been waiting for "instructions" from the party high command to stake claim. Amit Shah today said that BS Yeddyurappa to be BJP's CM candidate in Karnataka. JP Nadda will make the official announcement at 3:30 pm and later, Yeddyurappa is likely to take oath today at around 6 pm. Earlier on Thursday, Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar disqualified two rebel Congress legislators and an Independent lawmaker with immediate effect. The Congress rebels are Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak) and Mahesh Kumatahalli (Athani) constituencies in Belagavi district, while Independent R. Shankar is (Ranebennur) in Haveri district. All the three legislators will not be able to contest any assembly or parliamentary election till May 2023, when the 5-year term of the state assembly lapses. Jarkiholi and Kumatahalli were disqualified for abstaining from the 10-day budget session of the Assembly in February against the whip issued to all party legislators on February 7. A decision on the disqualification of the remaining 10 Congress rebel legislators will be taken in the next couple of days as its process is laborious. In all, 15 rebel legislators, including 12 of the Congress and 3 of the JD-S resigned from their assembly segments between July 6-10, abstained from the 10-day monsoon session of the Assembly and defied their parties' whip to be present in the House on July 23 when the floor test was conducted on the confidence motion caretaker Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy moved and lost. In addition to the rebels, Shankar and Nagesh, who resigned as ministers on July 8, also skipped the floor test despite pledging their support to the BJP. Nagendra and another Congress legislator Srimanth Patil also did not attend the Assembly for the trust vote as they were in hospitals for treatment and informed the Speaker duly. With 20 legislators, including N. Mahesh of BSP absenting for the floor test, Kumaraswamy lost the floor test by 6 votes, as the coalition allies polled 99 against 105 by the BJP in the division of votes, which resulted in the fall of their 14-month-old coalition government. ALSO WATCH: Retd Major gene KK Sinha shares his experience of Kargil War