Karnataka Crisis: Ahead of Yediyurappa government’s trust vote tomorrow, Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar disqualified 14 more rebel MLAs on Sunday under the anti-defection act till the end of the current term of the assembly in 2023. Of the lawmakers who faced the action, 11 are from the Congress while three are from the JD(S). With the fresh development, the total number of rebel MLAs disqualified stands at 17. Earlier on Thursday, three other JD(S) MLAs were disqualified.

The MLAs who were disqualified today by the speaker are BC Patil (Congress), Munirathna (Congress), MTB Nagaraj (Congress), ST Somashekar (Congress), Dr Sudhakar (Congress), Anand Singh (Congress), K Gopalaiah (JDS)), Narayana Gowda (JDS), Roshan Baig (Congress), Byrathi Basavaraj (Congress), A H Vishwanath (JDS), Prathap Gouda Patil (Congress), Shivaram Hebbar (Congress), Shrimant Patil (Congress).

The speaker's ruling came a day ahead of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa moving the confidence motion in the assembly to prove his majority, after assuming office on Friday.

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"I have used my judicial conscience," said Kumar, who had earlier disqualified three Congress rebel MLAs on Thursday and said he would make the pronouncement of his decision in the remaining cases in a "couple of days." "The disqualified MLAs cannot fight elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th assembly," the speaker said.

The Congress and JDS, whose government collapsed on Tuesday last after a rebellion by a section of their MLAs, had petitioned the Speaker to disqualify their errant members.