Janata Dal Secular (JDS) leader HD Kumaraswamy is facing a trust vote in the Karnataka assembly, well before the 15-day deadline that Governor Vajubhai Vala had set for him. Just before the floor test, Congress' Ramesh Kumar was unanimously elected as the speaker after the BJP withdrew its candidate's nomination. The new JDS-Congress government in Karnataka - after the BJP, the largest party, failed to win an outright majority - has come as a big boost for the opposition ahead of the 2019 national election and Mr Kumaraswamy's swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday doubled up as a show of anti-BJP unity. The JDS-Congress alliance, with 115 seats, is comfortably placed in the 224-member assembly for now.
