Karnataka: JD(S) expels three rebel MLAs

Bengaluru, July 31: The Janata Dal (Secular) on Wednesday expelled three MLAs - K Gopalaiah, H Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda- from the party. The three were part of the rebellion which led to the fall of Congress-JDS coalition government.

JDS expelled them for indulging in anti-party activities.

This comes a day after Congress expelled the 14 rebel MLAs from Karnataka who were responsible for bringing down the party's coalition government in the state.

The then Karnataka Assembly speaker K R Ramesh Kumar disqualified 11 Congress legislators -- Pratap Gowda Patil, B C Patil, Shivram Hebbar, S T Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil -- on Sunday.

Three other rebel MLAs -- Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar -- were disqualified on Thursday.

The Congress-JDS coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy crumbled under the weight of a rebellion by a big chunk of its lawmakers, 20 of whom were absent for the voting that led to the defeat of its trust vote.