Bengaluru: Congress party suffered a severe setback with JD(S) voting against the No Confidence Motion moved by the Congress against Legislative Council Chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy this morning.

Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbegowda allowed the voting on the motion moved by Congress MLC V.S. Urgrappa. While the ‘For’ received 36 votes, ‘Against’ received 37 votes.

The Congress fell short of two votes to garner the required 38 votes to remove the Chairman. Meanwhile, all the 13 members from the JD(S) voted against the motion to pave way for Shankaramurthy to continue as the Chairman.  Earlier to the voting, the Congress party agreed to JD(S) demand of making senior MLC Basavaraj Horatti as Chairman. However, the proposal was rejected by State JD(S) President H.D. Kumaraswamy stating that the decision had come too late from Congress.