Governor’s choice

Governor’s choice

Inviting Yeddyurappa to form government may create an unholy mess in Karnataka.

Karnataka’s fractured mandate has paved the way for some high voltage drama as both BJP – the single largest party – and the post-poll Congress-JD(S) combine put forward competing claims for government formation. BJP, with 104 seats, felt it had won the mandate and should be invited first by governor Vajubhai Vala. But while it has fallen short of the halfway mark of 112 seats, the Congress-JD(S) combine with a total of 117 seats has the requisite numbers. Yet the governor took the call yesterday night to invite BJP to form the next state government, with BS Yeddyurappa expected to take the chief ministerial oath today.

While governor Vala comes from a BJP/ RSS background, he also holds a high constitutional office. So he is expected to determine issues on the basis of a set of consistent principles rather than on partisanship. Those consistent principles are available and set forth in a 2006 Supreme Court judgment that considered just this question. According to the verdict by a five judge panel, the governor has no option but to invite any party or alliance, whether pre-poll or post-poll, which commands a majority in the assembly.

Going by the above criterion the governor should have invited the Congress-JD(S) combine first to form the government.

Now his decision is not only likely to be legally challenged, giving BJP time to prove its numbers could open the floodgates to horse trading and unsavoury tactics to secure a majority. The spectre of BJP’s 2008 Operation Lotus hangs over Karnataka. Back then the party had poached 20 MLAs from Congress and JD(S) to form government.

In fact, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has already alleged that BJP is trying to lure away his MLAs with Rs 100 crore offers. All of this has forced Congress and JD(S) to take recourse to resort politics. Reportedly, the same resort near Bengaluru where Gujarat Congress legislators had been housed last year before Rajya Sabha elections has been booked to host their Karnataka counterparts. Besides, there was the precedent of Goa and Manipur elections last year, where BJP had been allowed to form the two state governments with allies despite Congress emerging as the single largest party in each case. Offering Yeddyurappa first shot at forming a government has vastly increased the odds of an unholy mess in Karnataka.