Bharatiya Janata Party president in Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday said his party would ask for Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to seek a trust vote on the floor of the Assembly on Monday to prove his government’s majority, PTI reported. This came a day after the chief minister asked Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to fix a date and time for the floor test.

The Monsoon session of the Assembly will resume on Monday even as the state government remains perilously close risk of losing its majority. Sixteen legislators of the ruling alliance of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) have stepped down since the start of this month, plunging the state into a political crisis.

“Monday morning at business advisory committee meeting we will advise that chief minister’s commitment should be fulfilled,” Yeddyurappa said. “The chief minister himself has said in the Assembly that without the support of MLAs, he would not like to continue and hence would be moving a motion seeking trust vote. Let us wait till Monday, if he is going to move confidence motion we have no objection. We will wait till Monday.”

The former chief minister asserted that the coalition government had lost majority and its collapse was imminent. Yeddyurappa said it was better for Kumaraswamy to resign and for him to allow a new government to take over for the people of the state.

Earlier in the day, five rebel Congress MLAs aapproached the Supreme Court against Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar for not accepting their resignations. The legislators – K Sudhakar, Roshan Baig, MTB Nagaraj, Muniratna Naidu and Anand Singh – alleged they were “being forced to support the government on the threat of disqualification”.

One of the MLAs, MTB Nagaraj, however said he was reconsidering his resignation from the Assembly, and would talk to K Sudhakar about withdrawing his resignation. He made the statement after Congress leader DK Shivakumar and other senior leaders requested him rethink his decision because of his 40-year association with the party. “I have asked them to give me some time because I have to discuss this with Sudhakar as well, who resigned along with me,” he was quoted as saying. “I told the leaders that I will also bring him for a discussion.”

Yeddyurappa said he does not think Nagaraj “will go back” on his decision to resign. “Some people may have tried to put pressure,” he added. “I heard that DK Shivakumar was at his residence since 5 am. I feel that as they have produced affidavit before the Supreme Court, Nagraj or Sudhakar cannot go back and they will not go back.”

Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar also filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Saturday, saying he did not avoid meeting the rebel MLAs from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular). The legislators had alleged that speaker wanted to prolong the life of the ruling dispensation in Karnataka. Kumar reiterated that resignations were not submitted in the prescribed format.

This came a day after the Supreme Court ordered status quo on the resignations of 10 MLAs, who filed a petition on Wednesday, till it decides larger constitutional questions. The matter will be heard again on July 16. Until then, disqualification proceedings cannot be initiated against the legislators.

The state units of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party moved their legislators to hotels in Bengaluru after the first day of the Assembly proceedings on Friday.