Karnataka Politics: As Yeddyurappa Becomes CM, Senior Babus Transferred

Bengaluru-Hours after B S Yeddyurappa assumed office as chief minister, several IAS and IPS officers were on Thursday transferred in a top level reshuffle. The government appointed M Lakshminarayana, additional chief secretary, public works department, as the additional chief secretary to the chief minister. It also notified that his position will be equivalent to the additional chief secretary in home department. Senior IPS officer Amar Kumar Pandey, serving as Additional Director General of Police, Railways, has been made ADGP, Intelligence, according to a government notification.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police Sandeep Patil will be the DIG, Intelligence. Bidar Superintendent of Police D Devaraja has been transferred to Bengaluru Central division as the deputy commissioner of police. Superintendent of police in anti-corruption bureau S Girish has been transferred as DCP of Bengaluru North East Division. ‘MLAs Will Be Auctioned Under Indian Political League’ Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala inviting the BJP to form the government in the state has led to a situation wherein MLAs will be auctioned under the Indian Political League the way cricketers are auctioned in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said today. Sinha staged a protest outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan today against the Governor’s decision, and alleged that the unconstitutional move amounted to murder of democracy.

The former Union minister was also not impressed with the Congress and the JD(S) approaching the Supreme Court against Vala’s decision to invite the BJP to form government and noted it was the weakness of the country’s political system that it failed in delivering justice in such cases. Earlier in the day, Sinha tweeted that the developments in Karnataka were rehearsal of what would happen in Delhi after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is eight MLAs short of majority. Now from where will it get the requisite numbers (to prove majority)? The numbers will be managed after some MLAs will defect from other parties, Sinha said as he sat on a dharna on behalf of Rashtriya Manch to save democracy. The Governor has done exactly opposite of what is expected from him under the Constitution.

Like there is Indian Premier League in cricket, the Governor’s decision has led to Indian Political League in which MLAs will be auctioned…it is murder of democracy, Sinha added. Hitting out at Vala, who had been a BJP leader, Sinha said democracy would not work if Governors start acting as soldiers of parties. Yesterday too, the former Union minister had warned that the BJP would brazenly try to subvert democracy if it failed to get majority in the general elections and added he was glad to have left the party. I am glad I have left the party which is so brazenly trying to subvert democracy in Karnataka.

It will do the same if it fails to get majority in the Lok Sabha election next year. Please note my warning, he tweeted. BJP legislature party leader B S Yeddyurappa was today sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka for a second time, after an overnight high-voltage legal battle in the Supreme Court. The 75-year-old Lingayat strongman was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan amid loud cheering by his supporters. Yeddyurappa was administered the oath alone, hours after the Supreme Court refused to stay his swearing-in. The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the southern state winning 104 seats, but is short of a simple majority. The Congress and JD(S) — which have already announced a post-poll tie-up — have won 78 and 37 seats respectively and had claimed before Vala to have numbers to form government in the state.

The Governor has given the BJP 15 days’ time to prove its majority. Cong Demands Karnataka Model In Goa, Manipur In a ripple effect stemming from developments in Karnataka, the Congress in Goa and Manipur and the RJD in Bihar, which is the single largest party in the respective states, today said they will approach the state Governors and stake claim for government formation. However, questions are being raised on the surprising move by the two allies, more than a year after elections were held to the respective assemblies which appeared to be aimed at embarrassing the BJP. Also, the numbers are completely in NDA’s favour in all the 3 states. The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats in Karnataka Assembly, was invited by Governor Vajubhai Vala yesterday to form the government despite the JD(S)-Congress combine staking claim by citing the support of 117 MLAs. The majority mark is 112 seats.

Elections were held for all but two of the 224 seats. B S Yeddyurappa took oath as chief minister in Bengaluru this morning. Goa Congress Legislature Party chief Chandrakant Kavlekar said the party will stake claim tomorrow by submitting to Governor Mridula Sinha a formal letter containing signatures of all the 16 party MLAs. The Governor has given 12 noon time for the meeting with the Congress leaders. In the Assembly elections held in March last year, the Congress bagged 17 seats in the 40-member House, falling short of the majority figure by four seats. One MLA later resigned and joined the BJP. The BJP, which got 14 seats, formed the government in alliance with Goa Forward Party and MGP, both of which had secured three seats each.

Three Independents also went with the BJP. Kavlekar said the Goa Governor should follow the precedent set by her Karnataka counterpart and invite the single largest party to form the government “correcting her mistake of March 12, 2017”. “We have 16 legislators with us and with that strength we are the single largest party in the (Goa) Assembly. The governor should invite us to form the government in Goa as per the precedent set by her Karnataka counterpart,” said Kavlekar, the Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly, in Panaji. When pointed out that the Congress needs support of at least 21 legislators to stake the claim, he said once the governor swears in the Congress chief minister, he will be able to prove his majority on the floor of the House.

“The numbers will have to be proven on the floor of the House and we have that with us,” he said. However, he did not specify how the party would muster the majority. Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said governors can’t have two different set of rules. “While in Karnataka the governor has invited single largest party, in Goa too, the same precedent should be followed,” he said. The Congress is giving an “opportunity to Goa governor to rectify the mistake which she did last year”, Chodankar said. The BJP-led government in Goa is headed by Manohar Parrikar, who is currently undergoing treatment in the US for his pancreatic ailment. In Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said his party will also request the Bihar Governor to dissolve the state Assembly and like in Karnataka invite the single largest party, which in the state is his party.

Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad and the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar assembly, told reporters in Patna he has sought an appointment with the Governor Satyapal Malik tomorrow before whom “we wish to submit that there cannot be double standards”. The JD(U)-BJP alliance together with other allies have 131 seats in the 243 Assembly. However, the RJD is still the single largest party with 80 MLAs. Yadav said if the BJP was invited by the Karnataka Governor to form the government on the ground that it was the single largest party, then the RJD also had the right to form the government.

“We will request the Bihar Governor to dismiss the state government and invite the RJD to form the government,” he said. “I will meet the Governor along with our MLAs as we are the single largest party in Bihar,” tweeted Yadav. Former Manipur chief minister and Congress leader Ibobi Singh also said he will seek an appointment with the Governor for staking claim to form a government, In the Manipur poll held last year, the Congress had won 28 seats in the 60-member House and the BJP 21.

The BJP joined hands with regional parties to claim support of majority of MLAs and Governor Najma Heptulla invited it to form the government, ignoring the claim of the Congress. CPI-M chief Sitaram Yechury recalled that the BJP government appointed Governors did not invite single largest party in either Goa, Manipur or Meghalaya (Congress-21 out of 60) and said union ministers gave arguments supporting them. “The precedent is there to follow, right? #Karnataka,” he tweeted.

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