Karnataka CM sworn in as court challenge fails
YEDDYURAPPA TAKES OATH AFTER NIGHT-TIME SUPREME COURT HEARING
Aleader from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party took the oath to become chief minister of a key southern Indian state yesterday after the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute bid to block the move.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made huge gains in the Karnataka state election but fell short of a majority, sparking a scramble for power between the party and its arch rival Congress.
The Congress party, which lost sole control of the state in Saturday’s election, tried to stop the BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa from taking the oath as chief minister by forming a coalition with a smaller regional party.
The BJP argued that it should get the first chance to form a government as it is the largest party with 104 seats. State governor Vajubhai Vala gave the right-wing party 15 days to prove it has a majority.
Congress went to the Supreme Court to block the BJP, but after a rare three-hour night-time hearing that lasted until dawn, the court said the oath ceremony should go ahead.
Lawyers for Congress, which saw its number of seats cut from 122 to 78, had told the threejudge bench that the party had a ready majority with the smaller Janata Dal (Secular) party which has 37 seats. Congress and Janata Dal also claim the support of two independents and have accused the BJP of trying to bribe their lawmakers to switch sides.
But the legal battle for Yeddyurappa and his party seems to be far from over. This morning the apex court will hear the matter again and the newly sworn-in chief minister will have to produce the two letters dated May 15 and 16 he has written to the governor to stake his claim for government formation. The BJP leader is said to have claimed a majority support in the letters.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party snatched a fragile and controversial victory in a state election outside its political heartland, boosting momentum for the Hindu nationalist leader a year before national polls.
Amid high political drama, the Indian Supreme Court convened a rare session at 2am yesterday but rejected a last-minute bid to block the Bharatiya Janata Party’s BS Yeddyurappa from taking oath as Karnataka’s new chief minister.
The BJP had argued that it should get the first chance to form a government in Karnataka as it is the largest party with 104 seats. State governor Vajubhai Vala gave the right-wing party 15 days to prove it has a majority, prompting an opposition coalition of Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to challenge the decision in Supreme Court. A bench comprising Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde and Ashok Bhushan adjourned more than three hours later without a decision. “In case [Yeddyurappa] is given oath in the meantime, that shall be subject to further orders of this court and final outcome of the writ petition,” it said.
During the hearing, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress, argued that the governor must have invited the post-poll coalition to form government as no single party secured majority. He questioned the 15-day time given to Yeddyurappa for proving majority, saying the Supreme Court had earlier said that “to give such time is to encourage the constitutional sin of poaching”. In his argument that ran for more than an hour, Singhvi also cited instances of Meghalaya, Manipur, Goa, Delhi, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir as precedents of postpoll alliances being invited to form governments.
Attorney-General KK Venugopal argued that everything was in the realm of “speculation” as the entire matter was still “a grey area”.
Justice Sikri asked him on what basis was the BJP claiming majority in the House: “It is not a fluid situation. In view of this arithmetic, on what basis do you claim majority?” Venugopal said it was the Governor’s decision. The court also observed that it was “preposterous” to argue that before state lawmakers take oath they were not amenable to anti-defection law. “It means open invitation to horse-trading. It is preposterous [to argue] that before an elected MLA takes oath as member all this [floor crossing] is allowed,” Justice Sikri told the Attorney-General. The bench could still overturn the BJP’s win and allow other parties to try to form government.
Yeddyruppa took oath as planned at 9am yesterday, but today he will have to produce the two letters he had written to the governor to stake claim for government formation. The BJP leader is said to have claimed a majority support in the letters.
Though the final result is still uncertain, analysts said the surge in support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka state showed that the party’s national appeal was still growing while its strongest foe, the Congress party, continued to decline.