Congress expels 14 rebel MLAs from Karnataka

Two days after the then Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar disqualified rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law, the Congress on Tuesday expelled 14 lawmakers – who were responsible for bringing down the HD Kumaraswamy-led-coalition government - from the party. 

All the MLAs, who resigned from the state legislature, had abstained from voting that led to the defeat of the Congress-JDSgovernment in the trust vote.

Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 11 Congress legislators - Pratap Gowda Patil, B C Patil, Shivram Hebbar, S T Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil - on Sunday.

Three other rebel MLAs - Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar - were disqualified on Thursday.

The Congress-JDS coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy crumbled under the weight of a rebellion by a big chunk of its lawmakers, 20 of whom were absent for the voting that led to the defeat of its trust vote.        

The AICC has approved the proposal received from PCC President, Karnataka regarding the expulsion of the MLAs, a party statement said, giving the names of all the 14 MLAs.