Yediyurappa to prove majority on July 29

Bengaluru, July 26 (IANS) Karnataka's new Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday said he would hold a floor test to prove his majority in the state Assembly on Monday (July 29).

"At the cabinet meeting held soon after I took oath as Chief Minister, I decided to go for floor test in the Assembly on Monday at 10 a.m., to prove majority," the 75-year-old Yediyurappa said at a press conference in the state secretariat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, who was sworn-in alone in his fourth term, also said he would table the finance bill after the trust vote to ensure the state budget for this fiscal (2019-20) is passed by the Assembly.

Yediyurappa also announced that his present one-man cabinet also decided to give Rs 4,000 cash benefit in two instalments of Rs 2,000 each to all farmers across the state under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, and waive loans availed by weavers in the state up to March 31, 2019 at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

Assuring the opposition parties Congress and JD-S of not doing vendetta politics, Yediyurappa said he would forgive and forget all and work for the development of the state.

"My priority is to address the problems of farmers, weavers, fishermen and agricultural labourers," he added.

The BJP has 105 members in the 225-member Assembly, whose strength is currently 222 after Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar on Thursday disqualified three Congress rebels for defying the whip issued for their presence in the House on July 23 when then Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy put the confidence motion he moved on July 18 to vote but lost.

One Independent is also supporting the BJP.

With all the remaining 13 rebels deciding to abstain from the Assembly till the trust vote is conducted, the Speaker's decision on their resignations by Monday will make no difference for the trial of strength by Yediyurappa.

With the absence of the 13, the house strength will be 209, with 105 as the halfway mark for simple majority.

The effective strength of the Congress in the House will be 63 out of original 79, while the JD-S has 34 legislators.

"As the combined strength of the coalition allies will be 97, the BJP will be able to sail through the floor test even if the lone BSP member (N. Mahesh) decides to abstain," BJP's spokesman G. Madhusudan told IANS.