The Supreme Court will on Friday morning hear the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular)’s plea against the Karnataka governor inviting the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government in the state.
Before dawn on Thursday, the top court had said it would not stay BS Yeddyurappa’s oath taking ceremony, and had asked the attorney general for a letter in which the BJP leader had said he had the numbers to become chief minister. It had added that Yeddyurappa’s swearing in would be subject to the final outcome in court. Justices AK Sikri, A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan will hear the matter.
Governor Vajubhai Vala had invited the BJP, which won 104 of 222 seats, to form the government, and had given Yeddyurappa a fortnight to prove his majority in the House. The party is eight seats short of a majority. The Congress and its alliance partners have 118 seats in total – the party won 78, the JD(S) 37, the Bahujan Samaj Party has one seat, and they have the support of two others.
“We do not know what kind of majority BS Yeddyurappa has claimed. Unless we see that letter of support, we cannot speculate,” ANI had quoted Justice SA Bobde as saying.
Yeddyurappa took oath at 9 am on Thursday. The Congress and its allies staged protests in parts of the country, and its President Rahul Gandhi called it the “death of democracy”. The party will also approach governors in Goa and Manipur, where it has the maximum seats, and is likely to ask to form the governments there.
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