Karnataka Governor Vaijubhai Vala invited the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) BS Yeddyurappa to form the government in the state on the basis of being the leader of the single-largest party, provoking an immediate and angry reaction from the Congress, which challenged the decision in the Supreme Court.
‘The Governor has violated all democratic principles by sending his invitation letter late in the night and calling for a swearing early in the morning the very next day,’ said KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary in-charge of the state. Ashok Gehlot, the party’s general secretary in charge of organisation, alleged that the Governor was acting on the instructions of PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. ‘This is blatant misuse of power. They have destroyed all the institutions.’
The BJP, which has 104 seats in the 224-member legislature (the current strength is 222 as voting in 2 seats has been deferred), still eight short of the simple majority required, said its government would be sworn in on Thursday at 9am. No central leader from the party is expected to attend the swearing in.
Vala has given Yeddyurappa 15 days to prove his majority on the floor of the house, prompting analysts to fear that the BJP will use this period to convince legislators of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) to abstain from voting. The Congress also objected to the length of time provided to the BJP.
Constitutional expert Babu Mathew, professor at the National Law School of India University, said while there might have been precedents in the past, the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of the Goa assembly was clear that the coalition or party with the majority was to be invited to form the government.
‘While the general rule is that the single largest party should be invited to form the government, this does not hold if the party does not have a simple majority,’ Mathew said. ‘If it is fairly clear that the party does not have a majority, and it is still invited to prove its majority, then the door is being opened for horse-trading.’
The Congress and the JD(S) forged a post-poll alliance immediately after the elections, when it became clear that the former, with 78 seats, could not form a government. The Congress has agreed to support a JD(S) government headed by HD Kumaraswamy as chief minister, and the two partners submitted a letter, with the signatures of 116 legislators, to the Governor on Wednesday.
This was preceded by Yeddyurappa staking his own claim.
Vala is believed to have consulted former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who told him that the convention was to invite the single-largest party.
The Congress, which has been citing the examples of Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya, where, despite being the single-largest party it was not invited to form the government, said late on Wednesday that it had moved court.
Earlier in the day, the three parties alleged that there were efforts on to buy legislators. The BJP, the JD(S) and the Congress, all bussed their legislators away to resorts for safe-keeping.
If the BJP forms a government, it will be the party’s 21st government in India (some are in partnership with allies). The Congress is now in power only in Punjab, Mizoram, and the union territory of Puducherry.
Muralidhar Rao, BJP general secretary in-charge of the state, said there was a well laid out principle when there was a hung assembly. ‘When there is no pre-poll alliance, according to Constitutional convention and Supreme Court’s observations in the SR Bommai case, the single largest party should be called and given an opportunity to form the government and prove majority on the floor.’
Rao said the Congress and JD(S) had not just fought against the BJP but also against each other in the recently concluded polls. There was no ideological convergence or synchronisation of any kind or explicit alliance or partnership or manifesto or programme understanding, he added.
The Congress is hoping it can still prevent the formation of a BJP government in Karnataka.
While the BJP has said it has not made a counter offer to the JD(S), there are reports that it did make one to the latter, which has 38 seats in the assembly (including one won by its partner Bahujan Samaj Party). By HT
