Rahul Gandhi after Congress-JD(S) govt lose trust vote: People of Karnataka lost

With Congress-JD (S) coalition government losing the Trust vote in Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the development marked the defeat of the people of Karnataka while those having greed and vested interested won.

"From its first day, the Cong-JDS alliance in Karnataka was a target for vested interests, both within & outside, who saw the alliance as a threat & an obstacle in their path to power. Their greed won today. Democracy, honesty & the people of Karnataka lost," tweeted Rahul Gandhi.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter and said that BJP is systematically dismantling the institutions and weakening the democracy.

"One day the BJP will discover that everything cannot be bought, everyone cannot be bullied and every lie is eventually exposed," tweeted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

"Until then I suppose, the citizens of our country will have to endure their unbridled corruption, the systematic dismantling of institutions that protect the people's interests and the weakening of a democracy that took decades of toil and sacrifice to build," she said in a subsequent tweet.

With 20 of its MLAs defying party whip, the 14-month-old Congress JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka fell on Tuesday after its defeat on the floor of the Assembly forcing Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to resign.

Immediately after the defeat, Kumaraswamy rushed to Governor Vajubhai Vala and submitted his resignation. The Governor accepted the resignation.

In the 224-member House, only 204 were present and voted in the division pressed by Leader of the Opposition Yeddyurappa after the voice vote. Yeddyurappa and other BJP members showed victory signs in the House while the ruling coalition members quietly walked out.

The defeat marks the end of an uneasy coalition that was formed after the assembly polls on May 23, 2018, which returned a hung verdict after three main parties in the state- Congress, BJP and the JD (S) fought each other in the polls. There were differences between the coalition partners that often came to the surface but they carried on against the threat of BJP.

As his government fell into a minority and political crisis deepened, Kumaraswamy offered to face a trial of strength on Thursday, July 18.

The voting on the trust motion started around 7.25 pm after four days of prolonged debate ignoring repeated directives of the Governor who set three deadlines for the completion of the business on Thursday and Friday, even as the battle over the resignation and disqualification of the dissident MLAs went on in the Supreme Court.

-ANI