BENGALURU: His first stint as Chief Minister lasted all of seven days. The second was cut short before he could complete a full term in office while his third term lasted barely three days. But nothing could stop his determined bid to turn the tables. BS Yediyurappa took oath as Chief Minister of Karnataka on Friday. In 12 years, he has been sworn in as head of the state four times, but this time too, lack of a clear majority for his government casts a shadow of uncertainty for the 76-year-old.
Yediyurappa didn’t waste any time after receiving the go-ahead from BJP national president Amit Shah and approached Governor Vajubhai Vala on Friday morning to stake claim to form a government in place of the Congress-JDS coalition which lost the trust vote on Tuesday.
“As instructed by our National President Shri @AmitShah ji and working president of BJP Shri @JPNadda ji, I have met his Excellency Governor of Karnataka to stake claim to form government”(sic), Yediyurappa tweeted in his attempt to dispel speculation that he was defying the central leadership and hurrying to form the government despite having barely 106 MLAs on his side — a number much lower than the required simple majority of 112 in the full House of 224 members. Within hours, at 6 pm, Yediyurappa was sworn in as CM. The rest of the cabinet will now await approval from the party’s central leadership.
“Two important decisions have been taken in the first cabinet. It has been decided that two instalments of Rs 2,000 each shall be paid to beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana as part of the state’s contribution. Also, loans availed by weavers, totalling up to Rs 100 crore, shall be waived immediately,” Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told the press soon after his first cabinet meeting. Reiterating that his priority will remain farmers, fishermen and weavers, Yediyurappa said he will look into details of the farm loan waiver scheme implemented under H D Kumaraswamy’s Chief Ministership and make further announcements.
“The Assembly will be convened on July 29 to move the motion of confidence and to pass the Finance Bill,” Yediyurappa said.
With three MLAs already disqualified and 14 others expected to stay out of the proceedings, BJP is expected to sail through without hiccups during the confidence motion as well as passage of the Finance Bill. With confidence that the odds are stacked in its favour, at least for now, the BJP has taken the leap to form the government, but considering that Yediyurappa will still be heading a minority government, the question of long-term stability still looms large.
“The previous government in Karnataka had its own reasons to fall. The BJP is synonymous with stability. We are bound to give clean and pure governance,” BJP working president J P Nadda told a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. The party central leadership even brushed aside questions over Yediyurappa’s age becoming a hurdle for him to continue as CM.
With 14 resignation and disqualification petitions pending before Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, the BJP is confident of winning comfortably in bypolls, if necessitated by further vacancies. For now, however, continuing in power seems to be a bigger challenge for the BJP than coming to power.