Bangalore, June 2
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today won a confidence motion in the state Assembly amid walkout by the Congress.

“The confidence motion, moved by the Chief Minister on the floor of the 225-member House (including one nominated member) has been voted in favour by 119 votes with none voting against it,” Assembly Speaker KG Bopaiah declared even as 71 members of the Congress staged a walkout.

The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), another opposition party, remained absent as it had earlier decided to boycott the 10-day Assembly session.

The sudden decision to go in for the trust vote was taken during the BJP legislature party meeting here yesterday. The move was apparently aimed at blunting the Opposition campaign against the government following the recent political turmoil triggered by the recommendation by Governor HR Bhardwaj to impose President’s Rule in the state after a ruling by the Supreme Court against the Speaker on the issue of disqualification of rebel BJP and Independent MLAs.

“I have moved the confidence motion to demonstrate that we have a comfortable majority in the Assembly. Even the 11 legislators whose membership was restored by the Supreme Court recently have extended unconditional support to my government,” Yeddyurappa told reporters soon after the House was adjourned for the day.

With the return of the 11 rebel legislators to the party fold, the ruling BJP now has 120 members, including the Speaker, the Congress 71, and the JD-S 26. The remaining six are Independents, including five whose membership was restored by the Supreme Court after they were disqualified along with 11 BJP rebels on October 10 by the Speaker.

One Assembly seat is vacant following the resignation of JD-S lawmaker Karadi Sangana, who abstained from a trust vote held earlier on October 14, 2010.

This is the fourth time Yeddyurappa has sought a trust vote after he led the BJP to victory in the 2008 Assembly polls. Yeddyurappa, whose party won 110 seats out of 224 and fell short by three numbers for simple majority, formed the government with the support of six Independents on May 30, 2008.

He proved his majority in the first week of June 2008. On October 11, 2010, Yeddyurappa again faced the floor test under a directive by Governor Bhardwaj after 16 MLAs, including 11 BJP rebels withdrew support from his government. Though the trust vote was won by Yeddyurappa, Bhardwaj rejected it on the ground that the due procedure of head count was not followed and forced Yeddyurappa to hold another trust vote on October 14.