The youth wing of the Congress staged a protest outside the Parliament House on Wednesday against the Centre and Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R Vala’s  decision to invite BS Yeddyurappa for government formation.

Yeddyurappa took oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka at 9 am at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Advertisement

Youth Congress workers gathered outside Parliament and raised slogans against the government as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress has dubbed Governor Vala’s order as an “encounter of Constitution”.

On Wednesday evening, Vala invited Yeddyurappa to form the government and take oath as chief minister on May 17. He also asked Yeddyurappa to seek a vote of confidence within 15 days of assuming office.

Also Read | SC refuses to stay swearing-in, Yeddurappa set to take oath

The IYC said the Governor seemed to be acting like “serving his masters’ in the BJP” rather than serving the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court after a midnight hearing refused to stall the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa as Karnataka’s new CM.

The court, however, sought the communications which Yeddyurappa had written to Karnataka Governor informing him of his election as the leader of the BJP legislature party. The court also said the swearing-in was subject to final outcome of the matter before it.

The bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri, while seeking Yeddyurappa’s response on the petition by Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) seeking to stall his swearing-in has directed further hearing of the matter at 10.30 a.m. on Friday.

During the hearing, which commenced at 2.20 am and concluded with the court passing the order at 5.30 am, Attorney General KK Venugopal was asked to produce the letters which the court was told were with the Karnataka Governor.

Also Read | What is Operation Kamala?

The top court heard a joint petition by the Congress and JD-S challenging Governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision inviting Yeddyurappa to form a new government in the state despite having 104 MLAs — eight short of simple majority.

The Congress and the JD-S, who formed a hurriedly stitched post-poll alliance after a hung assembly verdict to claim a majority of 116 members in the new assembly, called the Governor’s decision “unconstitutional”.

“The BJP has only 104 MLAs, the Governor invited Yeddyurappa to form government in an unconstitutional manner,” senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Congress, told the three-member bench of Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde and Ashok Bhushan.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra had constituted the bench shortly after midnight on Wednesday to hear the matter in court number six of the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from agencies)