On the BJP Karnataka’s Twitter handle, it was announced that Yeddyurappa will take oath as chief minister at 9.30am on Thursday. The tweet, however, was deleted later.
However, there was no official confirmation in this regard from the Raj Bhavan.
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The Congress held a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi late evening on Wednesday where its top leaders, including former finance minister P Chidambaram and former law minister Kapil Sibal, were present.
Chidambaram said that Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala may invite BJP legislature party leader BS Yeddyurappa to form the government.
Speaking to the mediapersons, Kapil Sibal said inviting BJP to form the government will be against the Supreme Court’s judgment with regard to government formation in Goa.
Meanwhile, JDS leader HD Kamaraswamy said that it was up to the BJP to prove majority, pointing out that BJP will be given the chance to prove majority.
Raj Bhavan show
Top leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Karnataka Congress met Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening and submitted the document containing signatures of the MLAs of the two parties to convince him that they have the numbers to form the government.
As per reports, Governor told them that he will consult a legal expert before taking a decision on inviting the BJP or the JDS-Congress to form the government.
Among the leaders who visited the Raj Bhavan were HD Kumaraswamy of the JDS and Siddaramaiah of the Congress.
The governor, however, rejected their demand to parade the MLAs before him.
Earlier, the Congress and the JD(S) gathered signatures of their MLAs on a document. It couldn’t be confirmed how many MLAs signed the document, but both the parties together must have gathered at least 112 signatures before approaching the Governor.
While outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed, earlier on Wednesday, that the Congress-JD(S) combine has 117 MLAs, it is learnt that the document was not signed by three MLAs.
Citing the majority mark, Siddaramaiah said that Governor Vajubhai Vala has to give Congress-JD(S) an opportunity to form the government.
“We have 117 MLAs, Governor has to give an opportunity to us (JDS-Congress combine) to form the government,” the Congress leader had said.
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the legislature party, he also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of encouraging horse-trading to bring the BJP to power in the state.
“Narendra Modi is encouraging horse-trading,” he said.
The May 12 Assembly elections had delivered a fractured verdict with the BJP emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats, falling eight seats short of the 112 needed to form the government in the state.
The Congress won 78 seats and the JD(S) 37.