Bengaluru: Karnataka’s new Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said he would hold a floor test to prove his majority in the state Assembly on Monday (July 29).

With the absence of the 13, the house strength will be 209, with 105 as the halfway mark for simple majority

“At the cabinet meeting held soon after I took oath as Chief Minister, I decided to go for floor test in the Assembly on Monday at 10 am, to prove majority,” the 75-year-old Yediyurappa said at a press conference in the state secretariat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, who was sworn-in alone in his fourth term, also said he would table the finance bill after the trust vote to ensure the state budget for this fiscal (2019-20) is passed by the Assembly.

Yediyurappa also announced that his present one-man cabinet also decided to give Rs 4,000 cash benefit in two installments of Rs 2,000 each to all farmers across the state under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, and waive loans availed by weavers in the state up to March 31, 2019 at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

Assuring the opposition parties Congress and JD-S of not doing vendetta politics, Yediyurappa said he would forgive and forget all and work for the development of the state.

“My priority is to address the problems of farmers, weavers, fishermen and agricultural labourers,” he added.

The BJP has 105 members in the 225-member Assembly, whose strength is currently 222 after Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Thursday disqualified three Congress rebels for defying the whip issued for their presence in the House on July 23 when then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy put the confidence motion he moved on July 18 to vote but lost.

One Independent is also supporting the BJP.

With all the remaining 13 rebels deciding to abstain from the Assembly till the trust vote is conducted, the Speaker’s decision on their resignations by Monday will make no difference for the trial of strength by Yediyurappa.

With the absence of the 13, the house strength will be 209, with 105 as the halfway mark for simple majority.

The effective strength of the Congress in the House will be 63 out of original 79, while the JD-S has 34 legislators.

“As the combined strength of the coalition allies will be 97, the BJP will be able to sail through the floor test even if the lone BSP member (N Mahesh) decides to abstain,” BJP’s spokesman G Madhusudan said.

Meanwhile, soon after takinh oath, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa directed Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar to withhold all new projects and transfers made by the earlier JD-S-Congress coalition government in this month.

“Yediyurappa orally instructed Bhaskar to put on hold all new projects cleared and transfers effected during this month by the previous government,” an official of the Chief Minister’s Office said here.

Purported reports about several multi-crore projects in infrastructure, irrigation and public works sanctioned by the HD Kumaraswamy government were making rounds since the political crisis gripped the southern state after 15 rebels of the coalition parties resigned from the assembly.

Similarly, hundreds of transfer files were reportedly signed by Kumaraswamy in the departments he was in-charge, by his PWD Minister and elder brother HD Revanna and other cabinet ministers of both the allies.

“Unsure of the survival of the coalition government, some of the ministries, with large budgetary allocations went over drive in processing and clearing their files, involving hundreds of crores of rupees,” a BJP functionary said.

In a circular to all secretaries and heads of the various departments, Bhaskar ordered them to keep the projects sanctioned and transfers effected on hold pending review by the new Chief Minister and new orders on them.

After failing the floor test on the confidence motion he moved on July 18 during the 10-day monsoon session to prove he had majority, Kumaraswamy resigned on July 23. Accepting his resignation, the Governor told him not to take any policy or executive decisions as a caretaker Chief Minister.