Just hours after lone BSP MLA in Karnataka N Mahesh announcing that he will abstain from the trust vote in the assembly tomorrow, party supremo Mayawati said that the party will be voting for the HD Kumaraswamy government on Monday.
बी.एस.पी. की राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष सुश्री मायावती जी ने कर्नाटक में अपने बी.एस.पी. के विधायक को सी.एम. श्री कुमार स्वामी की सरकार के समर्थन में वोट देने हेतु निर्देशित किया है।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 21, 2019
In a tweet posted by the official Twitter handle on Mayawati, the party informed that Mayawati has instructed the BSP MLA in Karnataka to vote for the government in the trust vote. This has come as a contradiction of what the party MLA had said earlier.
Earlier in the day, while talking to media N Mahesh had said that Mayawati has asked him to abstain from the voting, and he will not be attending the assembly on Monday and Tuesday. Mahesh was not present in the house on Thursday and Friday, when trust vote was scheduled to take place, but the ruling Congress-JDS coalition managed to postpone it despite Governor giving the deadline of Thursday evening and then Friday afternoon.
Mahesh was earlier part of the government in Karnataka but he had resigned in October last year after disagreements had erupted between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress concerning seat-sharing for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.
The BSP MLA voting for the Kumaraswamy is not expected to make any change in the outcome of the voting. Although the ruling coalition vote will go up to 100, this will not be enough to beat 105 of BJP and two independents, unless Congress and JDS manage to woo back the 15 dissident MLAs.