Karnataka shifts to HD: Kumaraswamy to take guard on Wednesday
ManuAiyappa Kanathanda and Sandeep Moudgal |
TNN | May 20, 2018, 08:39 IST
Highligts
With numbers staying 104 for the BJP, 117 for the JD(S)-Cong-BSP and independents combine, Yeddyurappa was forced to resign even before a floor test
HD Kumaraswamy will be sworn in as CM on Wednesday
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Tejaswi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Bannerjee, KC Rao, Chandrababu Naidu are expected to attend the inauguration
BENGALURU: A week after Karnataka went to polls, four days after it threw up a fractured mandate and barely 55 hours after being sworn in as chief minister, B S Yeddyurappa of the BJP resigned around 4pm- the time set by the Supreme Court for the floor test on Saturday.
With numbers staying as they were on Tuesday- 104 for the BJP, 117 for the JD(S)-Congress-BSP and independents combine - and the apex court dramatically curtailing the time given to him to prove his majority to 28 hours from 15 days, Yeddyurappa was unable to make the seat arithmetic work. This forced him to resign before a floor test for the second time in his political career.
This paved the way for JD (S)’ H D Kumaraswamy to be sworn in as chief minister and for the hastily-formed Congress-JDS alliance to form the government. Kumaraswamy's oath ceremony was initially slated for Monday (between 12 noon and 1.05pm, apparently on the advice of his father Deve Gowda’s astrologer). However, he later deferred it to Wednesday as May 21 is the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi.
The assembly speaker will be chosen on Thursday. The three-day-old drama, thus, ended in a tame anti-climax after having promised to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller (although TOI in its Saturday edition had listed pre-trust vote resignation as one of the scenarios).
BJP’s inability to win the vote will have national implications and will boost the efforts of its rivals to form an anti-BJP national coalition ahead of next year’s general election. Signalling this, Kumaraswamy said that invitations for his inaugural would be extended to Mayawati of BSP, Tejaswi Yadav of RJD, Akhilesh Yadav of SP, Mamata Bannerjee of TMC, KC Rao of TRS and Chandrababu Naidu of TDP. The Gandhis, Sonia and Rahul, of course, are invited.
Locally, while Karnataka will have the strongest opposition in decades in a 104-member strong BJP, it will consolidate the power of the Old Mysuru region in state politics as almost all the leaders of this combine are from this segment. They also tilt the balance in favour of the powerful Vokkaliga community to which both Kumaraswamy and Congress’s D K Shivakumar belong.
The day, though, wasn’t without drama. It started with the tired legislators of Congress and JD(S) doing the return bus trip from Hyderabad and checking into various star hotels. Congress, by midmorning, started releasing a series of audio recordings allegedly showing BJP leaders, including Yeddyurappa, reaching out to their MLAs. BJP denied these charges, including one where BSY’s son Vijayendra and another close aide were purportedly heard making an MLA’s wife an offer of Rs 15 crore or Rs 5 crore plus a cabinet post for her husband’s cooperation.

In his exit speech BSY admitted that he had personally reached out to rival MLAs. “I admit that I had gotten in touch with MLAs to ensure that a stable BJP government is in power. The MLAs had even promised support but anything can happen in politics,” he said.