Karnataka Chief Minister wins trust vote, BJP walks out

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and other JD(S) and Congress leaders wave to the media after their coalition government wins the trust vote, at Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru, on Friday. Pic/PTI

The three-day-old Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka on Friday won a vote of confidence without a contest, with the BJP MLAs walking out of the assembly before the floor test, in an unexciting end to the 10-day high-voltage political drama after the polls yielded a hung House.

It turned out to be a smooth sailing for the 58-year-old H D Kumaraswamy, as BJP members trooped out of the House after Leader of the Opposition B S Yeddyurappa's blistering attack on the "unholy" JD(S)-Congress coalition. Kumaraswamy's motion seeking the confidence vote was declared passed by voice vote by Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar in the absence of the BJP MLAs. Kumaraswamy described the BJP walkout as "escapism".

The first signs of the BJP conceding defeat in the numbers game were visible when it pulled out its candidate Suresh Kumar from the race for the Speaker's post, saying it had decided to honour the parliamentary tradition that the presiding officer should be chosen unanimously.