The newly elected Karnataka BJP legislators on Wednesday formally elected BS Yeddyurappa as its legislative party leader, party spokesman S. Shantharam said.
Yeddyurappa was already the chief ministerial face of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Karnataka Assembly elections held on May 12.
After the party meeting, Yeddyurappa went to the Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Vajubhai R. Vala.
“The party has chosen me. I have given the letter to the Governor and he will call me, that is what I am hoping. He told me that he will take an appropriate decision. I’ll inform you after I receive letter from Governor,” Yeddyurappa told the media after meeting the Governor.
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Of the 222 constituencies, the BJP won 104 seats, while the Congress won 78 and Janata Dal-Secular 38 (along with ally Bahujan Samaj Party), throwing up a hung assembly in the state.
Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that the BJP was trying to poach MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) in a bid to reach the 112 mark to form government.
Meanwhile, five Karnataka lawmakers (three from Congress and two from JD-S) went incommunicado Wednesday causing panic for the two parties who are trying to stitch up an alliance.
According to media reports, while all the newly-elected Congress MLAs were called in for a meeting, the Congress couldn’t get in touch with three of its legislators — Rajshekhar Patil, B Nagendra and Anand Singh.
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JD(S) MLAs Raja Venkatappa Nayaka and Venkata Rao Nadagouda are also reported to be missing from the JD(S) legislative party meeting which is going on in a hotel in Bengaluru
Congress, which won 78 seats, has declared its their unconditional support to JD(S) to form the government.
Despite falling short of the majority mark, the BJP has claimed that it is 100 per cent confident of forming government.