Days into Karnataka’s political drama, in yet another development, Governor Vajubhai Vala has given a nod to BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa to take oath as the Karnataka Chief Minister.
On Friday morning, BS Yeddyurappa met the Governor to stake claim to form the government as the BJP had become the single largest party in the assembly. He had told reporters, “I will meet Governor now and stake claim to form government. I will request Governor to hold the oath taking ceremony today itself.”
After meeting the Governor, BS Yeddyurappa said that the Governor had accepted his request and he would take oath at 6pm.
Shri @BSYBJP will take oath as CM of Karnataka today evening at 6 pm
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) July 26, 2019
In a letter to the Governor, Yeddyurappa had said, "I intend to state that after the present government headed by Shri HD Kumaraswamy has lost the vote of confidence in the legislative assembly and consequently, he resigned to the post of chief minister. [...] I submit that I am the leader of BJP Legislature Party and also the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. At present, the strength of the BJP MLAs is 105 and the single largest party in the Assembly. Therefore I request Your Excellency, I may be invited to form alternate government today itself and I will take oath as Chief Minister of Karnataka at Raj Bhavan between 6 pm and 6.15 pm."
Governor Vajubhai Vala has given Yeddyurappa a week to prove his majority in the House, after he is sworn in.
This comes a day after Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar disqualified three MLAs – Congress MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli and independent MLA R Shankar, till the end of the current Assembly’s term. The Speaker announced that the decision on disqualification petitions of 14 other rebel MLAs of the JD(S) and Congress parties will be declared in the coming days.
The Karnataka political crisis had been going on after 15 of its MLAs tendered their resignations. What followed was days of delay in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly where the Congress-JD(S) coalition which was previously in power in the state tried to delay the trust vote.
The trust vote, which finally happened on Tuesday, saw the Congress-JD(S) government lose by 7 votes as there were 98 votes for the government and 105 against.