Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s won the trust vote in the Assembly on Friday after the Bharatiya Janata Party walked out. All 117 MLAs remaining in the House voted in his favour. The saffron party walked out during the chief minister’s speech.

“The 2018 Assembly polls has resulted in unique political developments in the state,” Kumaraswamy said while proposing the trust vote. “The people have not given me a complete mandate. The Opposition feels the mandate is theirs, but I am yet to understand how they believe it to be so.” He added that he has been given a second chance at becoming the chief minister of Karnataka.

He asked people not to assume that he had allied with the Congress just to become the chief minister. “I took the decision for the future of my party. I want to right the wrongs that I have done when I was previously the chief minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party Karnataka president BS Yeddyurappa warned the Congress that the JD(S) had betrayed the BJP in the past and could do the same to them. He also alleged that there are several charges of corruption against the Gowda family.

“Think about the unholy coalition,” Yeddyurappa told the Congress MLAs in the House. “People are laughing at the Congress for joining hands with the JD(S). Think about the future of your party. Don’t worry about the BJP.”

Soon after Yeddyurappa finished his speech, the BJP MLAs staged a walk out, as the Congress and JD(S) MLAs shouted “shame shame shame”, The Hindu reported.

BJP leader R Ashoka told reporters that they decided to walk out on the matter of farmers’ loan waivers. “We will hold state wide bandh on May 28,” Ashoka said. “We will be aggressive now.”

Congress’ Ramesh Kumar elected Assembly speaker

Earlier on Friday, Congress leader Ramesh Kumar was unanimously elected the speaker of the Karnataka Assembly after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s S Suresh Kumar withdrew his nomination for the post, PTI reported.

Ramesh Kumar, an MLA from Srinivaspura from Kolar district, had held the post between 1994 and 1999. He was the health minister in the Congress government in Karnataka headed by Siddaramaiah.

Suresh Kumar said he was withdrawing from the post to maintain the “legislature traditions”. Yeddyurappa said the party decided to withdraw the nomination as they wanted the election to be unanimous in order to maintain the dignity of the speaker’s post, ANI reported.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy thanked the BJP for withdrawing the nomination. “It’s an honour to have Ramesh Kumar as the speaker,” Kumaraswamy said. “He was the speaker when my father was the chief minister of Karnataka.”

Kumaraswamy was sworn-in as the chief minister on Thursday while Congress leader G Parameshwara took oath as his deputy. Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal (Secular), which won 37 out of the 222 Assembly seats that went to the polls on May 12, has partnered with the Congress, which has 78 seats, to form the government.

The BJP had won 104 seats in the elections, and was invited first to form the government though the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) post-poll alliance had a majority. The alliance had moved the Supreme Court against Governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to invite the BJP to form the government. The top court had given BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa a day to prove his majority in the Assembly, but he resigned as chief minister on May 19 before the trust vote took place.