Hung House to governor house

“I assure the people of Karnataka- we are with them in their development journey. We will work for the progress of Karnataka,” he added.while neither commented on it, Hindustan Times learns that the BJP is confident Vala will invite it to form the government and that it will be able to prove its majority on the floor of the house. A party leader in Delhi said on condition of anonymity: “We expect the governor to invite us. Once this happens, we will have time, a week or so, to prove our majority. I think many MLAS in the opposition will recognise that the mandate is with us.”

The BJP’S chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa declared that as the single largest party, the governor was duty bound to invite his party to form the government. “The verdict was against the Congress party. They are trying to get into power through the backdoor,” he said

Addressing the media in Bangalore after meeting Vala, outgoing CM Siddaramaiah and the alliance’s new CM contender, H D Kumaraswamy, said that they had the necessary numbers to form the government. The parties said they have submitted letters of support to the governor. Siddaramaiah said: “Apart from the 78 seats of Congress and 38 seats of JD(S), we also have the support of both the independents who have won election, which means that we have the magic number required to form the government.” Kumaraswamy confirmed that his party had decided to accept Congress offer of support and JD(S) was ready to form a government. Late on Tuesday night, Bengaluru was abuzz with rumours that Congress and JD(S) MLAS could be shifted to a resort in Puducherry, which has a Congress government.

BJP rushed its senior leaders and union ministers, Dharmendra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar, to ensure that the party formed the government in the state.

While the Congress and JD(S) did not rule out the possibility of the BJP trying to get some of their legislators to defect, Siddaramaiah said it would be difficult. “They have done this in the past in 2008 as well, so it can’t be ruled out,” he told reporters, referring to the infamous “operation lotus” allegedly carried out by the BJP in 2008, when it fell short of a simple majority by five seats.

Earlier in the day, the BJP ran away with the lead and, at one point of time, was leading in 117 constituencies. The BJP did well in Mumbai Karnataka and Central Karnataka, indicating that there was substantial Lingayat consolidation behind the party and the Congress’ move to award separate status to the community had not worked. It also swept the coastal regions of the state, where communal polarisation was high. The Congress has managed to offer some fight in Hyderabad Karnataka but was laid low by anti-icnumbency. Even Siddaramiah lost in one of the two constituencies from which he contested. The JD(S) has done exceedingly well in the southern parts of the state comprising Old Mysuru districts, which is the traditional base of its Vokalliga base. mission’s report and later the M.M. Punchi Commission’s report on Centre-state relations are the only instances where detailed procedures are laid down on the appointment of chief minister in case no party has majority. The Punchi Commission reiterates the Sarkaria Commission’s principle of calling the single largest party. However, both these reports are recommendatory in nature.

Clause 4.11.03 of the Sarkaria Commission states the Governor should be guided by the following principles “in choosing a chief minister”: “(i) the party or combination of parties which commands the widest support in the Legislative Assembly should be called; (ii) The Governor’s task is to see that a Government is formed and not to try to form a Government which will pursue policies which he approves. Thus, if there is a single party having an absolute majority in the Assembly, the leader of the party should automatically be asked to become the Chief Minister.”

Hegde says, even so, the Governor “must be careful to avoid calling a single largest party which simply has no hope of passing the test on the floor of the House”.

Three precedents bring out the pitfalls of either blindly inviting the single largest party or an alliance. In 1989, the Congress’s Rajiv Gandhi chose not to form the government despite being invited to because he wasn’t confident of the numbers. Then president Shankar Dayal Sharma invited the Atal Bihari Vajpayeeled BJP in May 1996 to form the government. It collapsed after 13 days. Former president KR Narayanan set a precedent when he insisted on clear written letters of support from Vajpayee’s allies in 1998. “It was Narayanan who introduced this new element (letters of support),” Satya Narayan Sahu, his officer on special duty, told HT. Narayanan’s autobiography ‘My Presidential Years’ recalls these events.

The governor ultimately ought to go by discretion, but convention and precedence are important touchstones, analysts say. reporters outside the Raj Bhavan after meeting the Governor and staking their claim to forming the government.

Not content with that, the party also held a press conference in New Delhi, building its case for why the JD(S) and the Congress need to be invited to form the government.

Claiming that Goa, Manipur, and Meghalaya, where the BJP, despite not being the single largest party, nor having a pre-poll alliance, was invited to form the government as part of a post-poll alliance, are precedents, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala made a case for the Jd(s)-congress post-poll alliance to be invited to form the government.

He also cited extensively from the Supreme Court’s hearing on the Goa assembly case, where the bench told the Congress counsel that the “convention of inviting the single largest party” was subject to numbers.