Kumaraswamy loses confidence vote in the Assembly

The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka collapsed on Tuesday after it lost the vote of confidence in the Assembly, ending the nearly three-week long high political drama in the state. With the numbers stacked against him, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy faced the defeat after winding up the debate for four days on the motion of confidence moved by him on Thursday last, amid the political turmoil.

Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar announced that 99 MLAs had voted in favour of the motion and 105 against it. The motion had been defeated, he said. The Congress-JDS government had defied the two deadlines set by Governor Vajubhai Vala to Kumaraswamy to demonstrate his majority on Friday itself.

A wave of resignations had set off the political turbulence in the state, pushing the 14-month old coalition government to the brink of collapse..