With the cliffhanger 2018 Karnataka Assembly contest leading to a hung assembly, all eyes are now on Governor Vajubhai Vala. Both the BJP — which has emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats — and the post-poll combine of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) with 118 seats (including one BSP member and two independents), have staked a claim to form the government.
The Governor is learnt to have told a delegation of leaders from both sides that he will be deciding on the next course of action after receiving the official notification from the Election Commission. The notification is expected late on Tuesday or on Wednesday morning, an EC official said.
All three parties are holding legislature party meetings on Wednesday. Both the BJP and the Congress have said they will meet the Governor again immediately after the meeting.
Cut-outs of PM Narendra Modi seen at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
While BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa claimed that law was on their side in the first claim to prove majority, outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that in a democracy it is the numbers that matter.
The BJP improved its tally to 103 (and a lead in another), up from 40 in 2013. While the Congress won 78 seats, down from 122 in the previous assembly, the JD(S) saw its number shrink to 37 seats from 40.
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However, the Congress was quick to knock on the doors of the JD(S), which it had termed the “B team of the BJP” in the run-up to the polls. With Congress central leaders in tow, Mr. Siddarmaiah and other senior leaders approached the JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda for an alliance, with the offer of an “unconditional support” to the JD(S) by mid-afternoon.
However, soon after, BJP leaders led by its chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa and a host of state leaders met the Governor seeking an opportunity to form the Government. The party asked for time to prove the numbers. Minutes after the BJP delegation left, a large delegation of Congress and JD(S) leaders, including outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, met the Governor to stake their claim.
“All India Congress Committee has decided to extend support. We have given it in writing to the Governor that we are extending unconditional support to the government to be formed by JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy. Two independents are also with us. We have also given the same in writing to JD(S) national President and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Mr. Kumaraswamy too,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said, emerging from the Raj Bhavan. “In democracy, the government is formed on the basis of numbers. We have it. We are confident that the Governor will go with numbers,” said Mr. Siddaramaiah, who had earlier tendered his resignation as Chief Minister.
By late evening, senior Congress leaders and Mr. Deve Gowda were huddled in a meeting to discuss the details of power sharing and who is to be made the deputy chief minister. “Seventeen berths will be shared with the Congress,” said a JD(S) source.
Operation Kamala?
With the BJP coming tantalisingly close to a majority in the 224-member house (elections were held for 222 constituencies as in one constituency it was deferred and another countermanded) leaders of both Congress and JD(S) expressed concerns over the possible repeat of ‘Operation Kamala.’ This was the BJP’s political manoeuvre in 2008 when, short of majority, it poached at least 6 JD(S) and Congress MLAs by making them resign from the assembly membership and later contest on the BJP ticket.
“They (BJP) are experts of Operation Kamala and they successfully did it in 2008. That is why they are asking for time,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said when his attention was drawn to the BJP’s plea to the Governor seeking time. Mr. Siddaramaiah too said that the BJP could resort to Operation Kamala. JD(S), at the end of the day, is learnt to have decided to gather its MLAs to a private hotel to keep them together.
