Expelled Bahujan Samaj Party MLA in Karnataka N Mahesh on Wednesday said his party’s high command had asked him to refrain from voting and remain neutral in Tuesday’s trust vote in the state Assembly. Mahesh, the only MLA from the party in the state, said it may have been a miscommunication and that he will continue to stay with the party, ANI reported.

On Tuesday, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had expelled Mahesh for not participating in the floor test in the Karnataka Assembly to vote in favour of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition. “By violating the party high command order to vote in favour of the [HD] Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka, BSP legislator N Mahesh was absent during the trust vote today, which is indiscipline and the party has considered it seriously,” Mayawati had said.

“I came to know about it today and that is why I have come here to clarify that,” ANI quoted Mahesh as saying. “Our party in charge MP Ashok Siddharth told me to abstain from voting, keep neutral and don’t support any party. That was the instruction given to me and accordingly I got myself absent.”

Mahesh said that he had gone to visit his constituency and had come back to Bengaluru on Wednesday after he learnt about his expulsion. He also stressed on the fact that he would not support the Bharatiya Janata Party. “I got all justice from my party,” Mahesh said. “I will stay in BSP today and tomorrow. Let them form the government, I will keep neutral.”

On Sunday also, Mahesh had claimed that the party had told him to abstain from voting. The expelled MLA was absent during the trust vote on Tuesday in the Karnataka Assembly, which had been moved by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The coalition of Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) failed to prove its majority in the trust vote . The 14-month-old ruling coalition lost the floor test after 99 MLAs voted in favour of it, but 105 legislators voted against it. Soon after, Kumaraswamy met Governor Vajubhai Vala to submit his resignation.