KR Ramesh is the Congress lawmaker from Kolar assembly constituency. (File )
Highlights
- KR Ramesh Kumar quits 14 months after he was elected as Speaker
- "People come and go," he says after trust vote
- BS Yediyurappa sailed through a trust vote today
Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar resigned soon after Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa sailed through a trust vote today.
"I am resigning from this august post as Speaker of the state legislative Assembly for personal reasons. I thank all the members for cooperating with me during my 14-month long tenure in this chair," the Congress lawmaker from Kolar assembly constituency told the lawmakers in Kannada.
"Forgive me if I have made any mistakes. Please don't take it personally," the 70-year-old leader told the house.
"Sometimes we have to take some harsh decisions... we are small people. We should try and not disrespect the chair that we sit on. People come and go, chief Ministers come and go, be good and do good," KR Ramesh said before quitting.
The three-day old BS Yeddiyurappa government proved its majority in the state assembly today after three weeks of power struggle. Mr Yeddiyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister on Friday for the fourth time, a day after Congress-JDS coalition collapsed in the assembly.
In the test of strength last week, the Congress-JDS coalition, which suffered a setback after 16 of the coalition lawmakers resigned and two independents withdrew support earlier this month, managed to get only 99 votes.
On Sunday, 11 rebel lawmakers of the Congress and three from HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal Secular were disqualified by the Speaker after three rebel lawmakers were disqualified last week.
The majority mark in the House, after the disqualifications, slid to 105 - a number the BJP had. All the lawmakers have been disqualified till the end of the term.
Soon after his resignation, KR Ramesh left the house to attend the last rites of Congress lawmaker Jaipal Reddy who died on Sunday. "As I have to rush to Hyderabad to attend the last rites of Congress veteran Jaipal Reddy, I seek the permission of all the members to leave the House, handing over the chair to Deputy Speaker Krishna Reddy of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)," he said.