A week after losing power to the BJP in Karnataka, the Congress party has expelled 14 rebel MLAs from the party for indulging in anti-party activities. These MLAs were responsible for bringing down the 14-month-old HD Kumaraswamy coalition government in the state. All the MLAs but one, who resigned from the House, had abstained from voting that led to the defeat of the Congress-JD(S) government in the trust vote last week.

The AICC has approved the proposal received from Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao for the expulsion of the rebel MLAs, a party statement said on Tuesday. The 14 MLAs are Mahesh Kumatalli, Shrimant B Patil, Ramesh L Jarkiholi, Pratap Gowda Patil, Shivaram Mahabaleshwar Hebbar, BC Patil, R Shankar, Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, BA Basavaraj, ST Somashekar, Munirathana, Roshan Baig and MTB Nagaraj.


The action by the party comes days after these MLAs were disqualified from the Vidhan Soudha by then Speaker Ramesh Kumar. While Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar were disqualified on Thursday, the remaining 11 were disqualified on Sunday.

All these MLAs had resigned from their respective membership, pushing the coalition government into trouble. The one MLA who averted expulsion from the party is Ramalinga Reddy. He was also among the rebel MLAs who had resigned but later changed his mind.

The Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka failed to clear the floor test after 20 MLAs (14 Congress, three JD-S, two independents and one BSP) skipped the House proceedings that led to its defeat during the trust vote. Kumaraswamy lost the confidence vote, garnering just 99 votes with 105 against.

Later, the BJP formed the government under the leadership of BS Yediyurappa and proved the majority in the House.