Kumaraswamy to take oath as Karnataka CM
Governor gives JDS leader 15 days to prove majority
Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R Vala yesterday invited Janata Dal Secular’s (JDS) legislative party leader H.D. Kumaraswamy to form the next government in the state, following the resignation of BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa ahead of his trust vote.
“The Governor has invited me to form the next government as the leader of the JDS legislative party with the support of the Congress, which is our alliance partner,” Kumaraswamy told reporters at the Raj Bhavan after the meeting.
The JD-S leader also said the Governor had given him 15 days to prove that he had majority in the 224-member legislative assembly, whose strength is currently 222. “I have decided to form the JD-S-Congress government on May 23 by taking oath at 11am in the Kanteerva stadium,” Kumaraswamy said.
Earlier, in an anti-climax to the hectic political developments since the split verdict in May 12 polls, the BJP lost power in Karnataka as Yeddyurappa resigned before the trust vote, as he did not have the numbers to prove his majority.
A little ahead of the appointed time of trust vote at 4pm, Yeddyurappa made an emotional speech, saying the BJP didn’t get the numbers needed to prove a majority in the House. “I will lose nothing if I lose power, my life is for the people,” he said.
In an anti-climax to the hectic political developments since the split verdict in May 12 Karanataka Assembly polls, the BJP lost power in Karnataka as Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned yesterday before a confidence vote, as he did not have the numbers to prove his majority.
His resignation paved the way for the formation of a Congress-Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the confidence vote, saying he would have learnt lessons from Yeddyurappa who was forced to resign as Karnataka chief minister just two days after being sworn in.
The order for advancing the confidence vote to Saturday came from the Supreme Court as the Congress and the JD-S filed a petition challenging Governor Vajubhai Vala’s invitation to Yeddyurappa to form a government and his giving the BJP leader 15 days to prove his majority.
While the BJP emerged as the single-largest party, the Congress and the JD-S, which formed a post-poll alliance, said they had the required numbers to form the government.
A little ahead of the appointed time of the trust vote at 4pm, Yeddyurappa made an emotional speech, saying the BJP didn’t get the numbers needed to prove majority in the House.
“I will lose nothing if I lose power; my life is for the people,” he said.
In his 15-minute address to the House, the 75-year-old BJP leader said there was no way he could have served the people of Karnataka. Lamenting that hundreds of farmers had committed suicides across the state during the last five years, Yeddyurappa said the Congress could not ensure water for the irrigation of farmlands in the state 70 years after independence.
“My aim is to serve farmers till my last breath. I will also continue to serve all the people, including the Dalits, backward classes, weaker sections and the poor,” reiterated Yeddyurappa who was the first BJP Chief Minister in south India when the party came to power on its own in Karnataka in the 2008 assembly election.
Expressing confidence that the BJP would win all 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state in the 2019 general elections, Yeddyurappa said the party would also win in 150 of the 224-member state assembly in the next elections.
“It was my dream to be the chief minister of the state at a time Narendra Modi is the prime minister. If only people would have given us 113 seats instead of 104, we would have made this state a paradise. But I will fight for the state till my last breath. We will get 28 out of 28 seats in Lok Sabha and I will win 150 Assembly seats for Narendra Modi [in the next assembly elections],” Yeddyurappa said.
Asserting that the mandate showed that the state’s people have rejected the Congress and the JD-S, he said: “People have voted against the Congress’ misgovernance. I have faced many ‘agni pareeksha’ [trial by fire] in the past and this trust vote is just another one.”
He then announced his resignation and drove to Raj Bhavan to submit his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala.
In Delhi, Gandhi launched a stinging attack on Modi stating that “PM is corruption” and there was no institution “worthy of respect of the Prime Minister, Amit Shah and the RSS”.
“I hope the BJP and the RSS learnt a lesson from this that the institutions of this country, the will of the people of this country cannot be disrespected,” he said.