Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala’s invitation to B.S. Yeddyurappa to form the government was well within constitutional norms.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Mr. Prasad quoted from the Sarkaria Commission, the M.M. Punchhi Commission and a Supreme Court order from 2016 in a case involving the deputy speaker of the Arunachal Assembly to make his point. “In every case it is clear that in case there is any issue, the largest pre-poll alliance is to be invited, after which consideration is to be given to the single largest party that stakes a claim to form the government and finally, to a post poll alliance,” he said.
“The Supreme Court has never questioned the Governor’s right to discretion, only said it should not be arbitrary,” he added.
When asked why the Governors of Goa and Manipur had not invited the single largest party (Congress) to form the government after polls in those States and instead allowed the BJP to do so, Mr. Prasad said the Congress had not staked claim in the first place. “The wording of the orders are very clear, the single largest party that stakes claim to form the government, and says it commands support of others,” he said.
