Yeddyurappa

“We will prove our majority on the floor of the house as soon as possible. I appeal to the Congress and JD(S) MLAS to vote with their conscience,” he said. Calling the opposition alliance unholy, Yeddyurappa said the people of the state had voted against the parties. “It is only after the elections, in the lead up to which they attacked each other, that they have come together to form this unholy alliance,” he said.

Over the course of the day, the new CM indicated he would announce a farm loan waiver, changed the state’s chief secretary, made transfers in police and intelligence department, and appointed a new advocate general.

The Congress and JD(S) held a protest at the Vidhana Soudha, the state assembly. They condemned the governor’s decision to invite the BJP to form the government. “Earlier Vajubhai Vala had sacrificed his assembly seat in Gujarat for Modi and now he has sacrificed the constitution and democracy for Modi-ji,” the Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters in Delhi, referring to how Vala had given up his assembly Rajkot seat in 2002 for then newly appointed CM Modi.

Surjewala called Yeddyuruppa a “one-day CM”. Congress president Rahul Gandhi also criticised the move, tweeting, “This morning, while the BJP celebrates its hollow victory, India will mourn the defeat of democracy.” BJP chief Amit Shah tweeted: “The ‘Murder of Democracy’ happens the minute a desperate Congress made an ‘opportunist’ offer to the JD(S), not for Karnataka’s welfare but for their petty political gains. Shameful!”