Mayawati instructs Karnataka lawmaker to back Kumaraswamy govt in trust vote

The announcement came hours after N Mahesh, the BSP legislator, said he had been asked to skip the vote by the party.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday asked her lone lawmaker in Karnataka to support the ruling coalition of Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) in the trust vote scheduled for Monday .

The Kumaraswamy government has been rocked by 16 MLAs resigning in the last two weeks - 13 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) . The two independent legislators have also withdrawn their support to the coalition government. (PTI)

The announcement came hours after N Mahesh, the BSP legislator, said he had been asked to skip the vote by the party.

“BSP national president Mayawati has directed the Karnataka BSP MLA to vote in support of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s government,” read a post on Mayawati’s official Twitter handle.

On Friday, Karnataka Assembly missed the second deadline for the HD Kumaraswamy government’s trust vote that Governor Vajubhai Vala had set for the ruling coalition. Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, who had earlier tried to build consensus in the house on the timing of the vote, announced that the discussion would continue on Monday.

The Kumaraswamy government has been rocked by 16 MLAs resigning in the last two weeks - 13 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) . The two independent legislators have also withdrawn their support to the coalition government.

The state Assembly has 225 members, including one nominated MLA. The halfway mark in the 225-member Assembly is 113