All is not well for Yeddyurappa

It is as if a ticking bomb, the hat that B S Yeddyurappa donned on Thursday morning is no less than a crown of thorns. As of now, he is the chief minister, however, “that shall be subject to further orders” the Supreme Court of India observed.

Much to his dismay, the Congress in a late night move, approached the Chief Justice of India to open the gates of the temple of justice to hear the urgent plea to stop Yeddyurappa from being sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka.

While our political honchos may well turn into political misleaders, trying to drive in the fact that the BJP has won the battle, the reality is far from it.

The Supreme Court, using its best capabilities of understanding, did not stay the swearing in but has not given a breather to Yeddyurappa as well. Being a listed respondent, the chief minister has to reply to the questions asked by the apex court by the next date of hearing on Friday.

Yeddyurappa and the BJP have a daunting task now with the Congress not willing to leave any stone unturned to reverse Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala’s invitation to the BJP to form a government.

The BJP has to prove majority, which it has promised to the Governor. The party has to also produce the letter before the SC that was submitted to Vala based on which it was asked to form a government.

The party had sought from the Governor a period of two days wherein the BJP promised to prove majority in a floor test at the state Assembly. Here the Governor went out of his way, which the three-judge bench too questioned, and granted the BJP a 15-day window to prove majority.

It is important to mention that the BJP could manage to bag only 104 seats and fell short of eight to reach the magic number. The 15-day window granted by Vala is being seen as a ‘licence to poaching’ by the Congress but in these 15 days, the BJP will have to bridge the gap between 104 and 112.

Logically, there is no way the BJP can prove majority in the assembly even if the independent candidates join hands with the BJP. In this case, it has to woo MLAs from either the BSP or the Congress or the JDS to fill the gap of eight. If successful, the BJP will call it a victory and say that the MLAs joined BJP on their own but the coalition will stand on a plank of morality and lash out at the BJP for having poached their MLAs.

The BJP after the Karnataka elections said it does not believe in poaching MLAs, though history speaks otherwise, and will now have to play a safe game and get the number while carefully staying away from tarnishing its image.

Clearly, it will not be a cakewalk for the BJP to prove majority. It seems Operation Kamala 2.0 will have to take a backseat unless the party comes up with a new strategy.

The Congress on the other hand too is relentlessly protesting against the BJP and the Governor and claims to have the support of all the MLAs who won the elections.

While it is time and patience that will allow an Indian enthusiast of politics to take a deep breath, it is money and muscle that will decide the fate of Karnataka and B S Yeddyurappa.


Below is a PDF of the copy of the Supreme Court order/ observation on the midnight plea by the Congress to stop the BJP from forming a government. The PDF has been taken from LiveLaw.in.

CLICK HERE to view the entire copy of the order