K'taka's Game of Thrones finally ends; HDK voted out

NEW DELHI: The one-year-old coalition government of the Congress and HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal-Secular - on life support for weeks - finally collapsed Tuesday, failing the floor test in the Karnataka assembly. The coalition mustered up only 99 votes in comparison to the 105 votes of the BJP, which later dubbed it a "Game of Karma". The demand for trust vote came as 16 legislators resigned and two Independents withdrew support to the government within a fortnight. The trust vote- pending since Friday - was held Tuesday evening after a lengthy back and forth between the Speaker, the coalition and the BJP and prodding from Governor Vajubhai Vala.

"It is a victory of democracy. People were fed up with the Kumaraswamy government. I want to assure people of Karnataka that a new era of development will start now," state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa said after the trust vote. "It's the victory of people of Karnataka. It's the end of an era of corrupt & unholy alliance. We promise stable & able governance to the people of Karnataka," the state BJP tweeted.

The trust vote came after a tug of war between the ruling coalition and the BJP that even reached the Supreme Court. The debate extended over Monday and Tuesday despite Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar's Monday deadline.

Ahead of Tuesday's session, the Speaker was livid seeing near-empty treasury benches in the assembly. "Should this be the fate of the Speaker or the assembly?" Kumar demanded. "You will lose credibility, leave alone strength," he said.

Responding to the debate on Tuesday evening, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said he was "not particularly worried about the end of this debate" and that he would "happily give up... rather than all this. I have acted with decency."

The Congress and HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal-Secular had tied up last May as the counting of votes in the assembly elections indicated a fractured mandate with the BJP emerging as the single largest party.

Meanwhile, state capital Bengaluru has been placed under prohibitory orders banning large gatherings after the northern part of the city witnessed a clash between the Congress and the BJP workers over the two independent MLAs who switched sides.