Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party which had secured 66 seats in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections, being the official opposition party, has now lost its seat strength, plummeting to 62 MLA’s, owing to different reasons.
The party’s recent seat share decline came as a result of its disciplinary committee issuing ousting orders against two MLAs, S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur) and Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur) on Tuesday.
The BJP's strength had declined down to 65 following the victory of the Congress candidate in the by-election to the Shiggaon constituency in Haveri district, the seat fell vacant following the election of Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai’s election to the Lok Sabha.
Following this, Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal was expelled from the primary membership of the party on March 26 on charges of anti-party activities, reducing the party's seat number to 64.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Yeshwanthpur MLA S.T. Somashekar and Yellapur MLA Shivaram were expelled from the BJP for six years over anti-party activities, bringing down the strength of BJP MLAs to 62.
Currently, out of the total 224 seats in the state, the ruling Congress has 138, BJP has 62, JDS has 18, Independents have 2, expelled 3 and 1 seat is vacant.
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Mumbai (PTI): Rupee depreciated 9 paise to an all-time low of 90.58 against US dollar in early trade on Monday, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.
Forex traders said rupee is trading with a negative bias as investors are in wait and watch mode and awaiting cues from the India-US trade deal front.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.53 against the US dollar, then fell further to an all-time intraday low of 90.58 against the greenback, registering a fall of 9 paise over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee had slipped 17 paise to close at an all-time low of 90.49 against the American currency.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 98.35.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 0.52 per cent at USD 61.44 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex was trading 298.86 points lower at 84,968.80, while the Nifty was down 121.40 points at 25,925.55.
Foreign Institutional Investors sold equities worth Rs 1,114.22 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
"FPIs continue to be in selling mode in equity and debt while RBI has been selling dollars to fund their long positions," said Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.
