Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala on Wednesday invited BJP legislative party leader BS Yeddyurappa to form the new government and take oath as Chief Minister at 9.30 am on Thursday, a party spokesman said.
“We received a communique from the Raj Bhavan, inviting Yeddyurappa to form the government and take oath at 9.30 a.m.,” BJP state unit spokesman Vamanacharya told IANS here.
According to reports, he has 15 days to prove his majority in the House.
Only Yeddyurappa will take oath at a simple ceremony in the ‘Glass House’ on the lawns of the Raj Bhavan in the city centre amid tight security.
“The Governor has invited party’s leaders and newly-elected legislators to the oath-taking ceremony,” added Vamanacharya.
There was, however, no official communique from the Raj Bhavan to the media till the filing of this report.
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Earlier in the evening, the Karnataka BJP had announced from its Twitter handle that Yeddyurappa would take oath as chief minister at 9.30 am on Thursday.
The tweet, however, was deleted later.
The Congress held a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi late Wednesday evening where its top leaders, including former finance minister P Chidambaram and former law minister Kapil Sibal, were present.
Chidambaram said Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala might invite Yeddyurappa to form the government.
Speaking to mediapersons, Kapil Sibal said inviting BJP to form government would be against the Supreme Court’s judgment with regard to government formation in Goa.
Meanwhile, JDS leader HD Kamaraswamy said it was up to the BJP to prove majority, pointing out that BJP would be given the chance to prove majority.
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Top leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Karnataka Congress met Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening and submitted the signatures of the MLAs of the two parties to convince him that they had the numbers to form the government.
As per reports, the Governor had told them that he would consult a legal expert before taking a decision on who to invite 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 rejected their demand to parade the MLAs before him.
The Congress and the JD(S) had collected signatures of their MLAs on a document. It couldn’t be confirmed how many MLAs signed the document, but it is assumed that both parties together must have had at least 112 signatures to show to the Governor.
While Siddaramaiah had earlier claimed the Congress-JD(S) combine had 117 MLAs, it was learnt that the document did not have all the signatures.
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.