SC shuts 15day window, BSY must pass test today

KARNATAKA Both sides ‘confident’; Bopaiah appointment as protem speaker kicks off new controversy

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to prove he enjoys majority support in the assembly on Saturday evening, shortening the 15-day window he had received from the state’s governor to face a floor test, as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rivals for power scampered to hold their flock together.

In a ruling that the Congress party termed “historic”, a special bench comprising Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde and Ashok Bhushan directed the appointment of a pro-tem speaker to oversee the floor test at 4pm “as per the rules of the House”.

The Karnataka legislative assembly will be convened at 11am on Saturday for conducting the Supreme Court-mandated floor test, according to a notification issued by governor Vajubhai Vala. He also appointed BJP leader and former speaker KG Bopaiah as the pro-tem speaker, leading to protests by the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).

The two alliance partners mounted a legal challenge against Bopaiah’s appointment in the SC, which will hear the plea at 10.30am on Saturday.

Friday’s Supreme Court order came on a petition filed by the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) combine challenging governor Vala’s invitation to Yeddyurappa on Wednesday to form the government after the May 12 assembly election produced a hung House. The BJP has 104 seats in a house with an effective strength of 222. The Congress has 78 seats, JD(S) 37 and three seats went to others.

With Bopaiah becoming protem speaker, his vote will be counted only in the case of a tie, so the BJP has an effective strength of 103. To win the floor test, Yeddyurappa will need seven more votes.

Governor Vala gave Yeddyurappa 15 days on Wednesday to face a floor test, to clear which he will need the support of defectors from other political parties, members of which would need to resign or abstain from voting.

The Supreme Court bench remarked that going by the report on Centre-state relations prepared in the 1980s by a Commission headed by RS Sarkaria, inviting the largest party to form government was not “illegal”.