Modi’s party loses face in power gaMe
BJP’s CM quits before a certain defeat in Karnataka floor test
new delhi — The chief minister of India’s southern Karnataka state quit on Saturday after just two days in office, rather than face a confidence vote his minority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unlikely to win.
Karnataka BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had been sworn in as the chief minister on Thursday, resigned rather than prove that he had the support of a majority of the legislators.
The BJP, which rules 21 of India’s 29 states, emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka, but its 104 seats left it short of a majority. Karnataka, home to India’s technology hub of Bengaluru, is the only southern state where the BJP has held power.
In an emotional speech carried live by most Indian TV news channels, Yeddyurappa said his party would now work towards increasing the number of parliamentary seats for the BJP in the state to help Modi’s re-election bid.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi hailed Yeddyurappa’s decision as a victory. “I am proud that they have been shown that in India power, corruption and money is not everything but the will of people is everything,” he said.
Some analysts, however, said the Karnataka developments were unlikely to hurt the prospects of Modi’s BJP next year, but investors will be closely watching elections in three other major states this year. “The impact of the Karnataka political outcome will be short-lived,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services. “From now on, till elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh later this year, economics will dictate the direction of the market (rather) than politics.” —
BENGALURU — Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned on Saturday before facing a crucial trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly with numbers stacked against the BJP in the newly elected House, bringing an end to a political thriller that began after May 12 elections threw up a hung verdict.
In an emotional speech in the Assembly, Yeddyurappa said 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 speech, the 75-year-old BJP leader said there was no way he could have served the people of Karnataka as the Congress was not even allowing its MLAs to speak to their family members.
“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),” Yeddyurapa said.
Asserting that the mandate showed that the state’s people have rejected the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (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 he would resign as the chief minister of Karnataka and after the speech, drove to the Raj Bhavan to submit his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala. The resignation comes two days after he took oath as the 23rd chief minister of the state.
The May 12 election across the state in 222 constituencies of the 225-member assembly, including one nominated, threw up a hung House, with no party securing majority. Polls in two constituencies were deferred.
Of the 222 seats, the BJP won 104, the Congress 78, the Janata Dal-Secular, 37 and one each was bagged by the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party and an Independent.
As the single largest party, the BJP was short of crossing the halfway mark. Yeddyurappa required the 111 halfway mark to win the motion or one more than the half of the members present at the time of the floor test was conducted in the House with an effective strength of 221.
Though the Governor had directed Yeddyurappa to seek a vote of confidence on the floor of the House within 15 days from the date of assumption of office as the chief minister (May 17), a threejudge bench of the Supreme Court ordered the floor test on Saturday, rejecting his plea for a week’s time to prove his majority. —