Ahead of trust vote, rebels need to abstain for Yediyurappa to win

Bengaluru, July 27: B S Yediyurappa on Friday took as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He will take the trust vote on Monday.

For Yediyurappa, the road ahead is not exactly an easy one. The first hurdle would be to get through the trust vote. This would then be followed by a Cabinet expansion in which he would have several MLAs to keep happy.

In the 225 member House the BJP has 105 MLAs. For Yediyurappa to go through the trust vote, he would need to take the same in a house with a reduced strength. On Thursday night, the Speaker disqualified 3 MLAs.

With the disqualifications, the strength of the House now stands at 222. The magic number is 112 and the BJP has 105. With the support of one independent now, since the other one is disqualified the strength of the BJP in the house is 106 and that makes it 6 short of the majority mark.

The BJP would look to take the trust vote in the house which would have a reduced strength. After the resignations of the MLAs, the House strength had come down to 208.

With the disqualifications and if the rebels remain absent in the House, the strength would be 205. This means that the magic number is 103 and the BJP has 105 on its own and the support of one independent MLA.

This would mean that when Yediyurappa takes the trust vote on Monday, he would be hoping that the rest of the rebels abstain. This would reduce the number in the House and with the BJP's existing MLAs and with the support of an independent MLA, Yediyurappa can win the trust vote.