BSP president Mayawati on Wednesday called the event of JD(S)-Congress government collapse in Karnataka as a black chapter in the history of democracy.

 

On Tuesday night, she expelled its lone party MLA in Karnataka hours after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy lost, the trust vote in the state assembly. She then tweeted:

"The manner in which BJP kept all constitutional norms aside and used money and power to pull down Opposition-led government in Karnataka will be registered in the history of democracy as a black chapter."

On Tuesday, the Kumaraswamy government collapsed after losing the confidence motion, garnering 99 votes against 105 to the BJP. Their coalition needed 103 votes to win the trust vote as 20 MLAs Congress-JDS (17), BSP (1), Independents (2) skipped proceedings, reducing the effective strength of the House to 205.

Kumaraswamy later submitted his resignation to the Karnataka governor, capping an intense power struggle triggered by a raft of resignations by rebel MLAs. He has however been asked by the governor to continue as caretaker CM until his successor takes over.

Mayawati expelled her lone MLA in the state for skipping the trust vote.

In her tweet, she said that the absence of Bahujan Samaj Party legislator N Mahesh during the trust vote and he violating the directives of the party high command to support the Congress-JD(S) coalition amounts to indiscipline.

"The party has taken it very seriously, and hence Mahesh has been expelled from the party with immediate effect," she added.