B S Yeddyurappa takes oath as Karnataka Chief Minister: Top 10 developments

In a joint petition in Supreme Court, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) had sought a stay on the oath-taking taking ceremony of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B S Yeddyurappa took oath as the 23rd chief minister of Karnataka on Thursday after the Supreme Court, in a post-midnight hearing, decided not to put a stay on the swearing-in.

Top BJP leaders, including Union Ministers JP Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar were present at Raj Bhavan in Karnataka during the swearing-in ceremony.

Earlier, while hearing a plea filed by Congress, the Supreme Court refused to stall the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa. The court, however, made it clear that the swearing-in and the government formation would be subject to the final outcome of the case before it.

The top court sought the letters which Yeddyurappa had written to Karnataka Governor informing him his election as BJP legislature party and posted the matter for further hearing at 10.30 am on Friday.

In a midnight legal push, the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) had approached the Supreme Court seeking an immediate intervention by the chief justice to stay the move, which it termed as an “encounter of the Constitution”.

The Congress urged Chief Justice Dipak Misra to hold an urgent hearing on Wednesday night itself since Yeddyurappa is slated to take oath as chief minister at 9 am on Thursday.

In a joint petition, the two parties had sought a stay on the oath-taking taking ceremony of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa.

The Governor on Wednesday invited Yeddyurappa to form the government, as the saffron party has emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats. Along with one independent MLA, the Bharatiya Janata Party has staked the claim at forming the government.

However, they are still short of the halfway mark of 112 by seven MLAs.

Whereas Congress-JD(S) alliance has 115 MLAs, just above the halfway mark.

“BJP has 104 seats, how will they prove majority on floor, even if they get some independent MLAs? Only way out is to bring Congress and JD(S) MLAs with them, either by using muscle power or buying MLAs. We have filed a petition urging Governor to give us a chance,” Javed, lawyer of the JD(S) and Congress.

---

Latest Updates on → Karnataka Election Results 2018

Karnataka Election Results 2018: Hung house in Karnataka; Congress and BJP spar over poaching rumors; Updates

After results to the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 threw up a hung Assembly on Tuesday, both BJP and Congress-JD(S) combine are targetting each other with allegations of poaching of legislators.

Karnataka Election Results 2018 : A day after the Karnataka Assembly election results threw up a fractured mandate, some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were reported to be claiming that they were in touch with several of elected members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Congress and the JD(S), and that the BJP would definitely form the next government in the state.

The BJP, apparently, is in talks with at least seven of the 10 Lingayat legislators of the Congress who are unhappy with the party for dividing the Lingayat community votes and are unwilling to accept Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, as their chief minister. Sources in the BJP told Business Standard that the party was also in touch with about half a dozen JD(S) MLAs who might be willing to abstain from voting at the time of the floor test.

Congress leader D K Shivakumar, while talking to news agency ANI, said that the party had a plan and that they were facing a lot of pressure with the BJP trying to poach Congress MLAs.

Also Read : BJP Falls Short Of Majority; Cong-JD(S) Stitch Alliance

In the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, with 104 seats, but it fell short of the halfway mark of 112 in the 224-seat state Assembly by 9 seats. Congress ended up as the second-biggest with 78 seats, and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) stood third with 38 seats. The Congress and the JD(S) decided to come together to form a coalition government.

At present, the ball is in the court of Governor Vajubhai Vala, who will decide which side would be invited to form the next government. According to an NDTV report, both sides would meet the governor again on Wednesday to make their case stronger.

Karnataka Assembly election 2018 saw a record 72.36 per cent of the 50.7 million (5.07 crore) voters exercising their right to franchise. Of them, 27,908 electors in defence services voted through postal ballots. The Election Commission had deployed 16,662 personnel for counting of votes amid tight security.

Four of the seven polling agencies had predicted in their exit polls that the BJP would emerge as the single-largest party. While most exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with the BJP ahead, two had said the BJP would either come very close to or cross the halfway mark of 112 seats. The India Today-Axis exit poll had said the Congress might bag a majority. All exit polls had given the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) nearly two dozen seats or more. The JD(S), however, beat that projection by bagging 37 seats.

READ MORE ON → Karnataka Results 2018

Karnataka Election Results 2018: Karnataka fate hangs in balance; BJP or Congress, who will have the last laugh?

While the BJP emerged single-largest, it was the JD(S) which turned kingmaker helping the Congress keep power in a crucial southern state.

Karnataka Election Results 2018 : Karnataka is headed for a spell of political instability as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged the single-largest party with 104 seats after the just-concluded Assembly elections, but could not reach the halfway mark of 112. The Congress, with 78 seats, acted with swiftness and agility, contacted the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), with 38 seats, offered the smaller party chief ministership and stitched up an agreement to forestall an understanding between the JD(S) and the BJP.

At the time of filing this report, Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala had remained non-committal on the claims of the parties, asking them to wait until the official tally is declared. Constitutional experts said the Governor was not obligated to call the single-largest party for a first stab at forming a government though the majority must be tested on the floor of the House.

As was widely expected, while the BJP emerged single-largest, it was the JD(S) which turned kingmaker, helping the Congress keep power in a crucial southern state. The BJP’s jubilant mood, when the initial results first poured in, turned to gloom as it became clear that the halfway mark was going to elude it. A scheduled press conference by party President Amit Shah was called off, a lunch party organised at the BJP headquarters was cancelled and drum players, who had congregated at the headquarters in Delhi, were asked to go home in a matter of hours. Bouquets of flower lay piled up forlornly at the headquarters, testifying to the disappointment of workers.

---

Also Read : BJP vs Congress-JD(S): Karnataka’s fate now in Governor’s hands; highlights

---

It was clear from initial reactions in Bengaluru and Delhi that the BJP was not interested in tying up with the JD(S) to form a government at any cost. The Congress, which had indicated on Monday that it was ready to be flexible about the top job (with former chief minister (CM) Siddaramaiah announcing that he was ready to accept a Dalit CM) got top leader Sonia Gandhi to call Gowda and persuade his son Kumaraswamy to become CM with the Congress’ backing to keep the BJP out. Although the JD(S) has roughly half the number of seats the Congress has, it grabbed the offer of chief ministership eagerly.

The BJP claimed it had the mandate to form the government. But the Congress and the JD(S), which together have a few seats more than the saffron party, retorted that they had got the mandate to prevent the BJP from forming a government. In a sense, the Congress did a BJP on the BJP. In Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur elections in 2017, the BJP tied up with smaller parties and Independents under the nose of the Congress, though the party was single-largest, and managed to form a government, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. “The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur that a single-largest party does not automatically qualify to form the government,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in defence of the Congress-JD(S) claim to form a government.

 Read More on → Karnataka Results 2018

Karnataka Elections 2018 : Farmers are in distress but a loan waiver may not help

Karnataka’s farmers, battling drought and water shortage, have been under dire financial duress.

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 » The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto for the Karnataka assembly elections 2018 released on May 4, 2018, declared that farm loans upto Rs 100,000 in nationalised banks and cooperative societies would be waived. A few days earlier, the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate and party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa promised a waiver of agriculture loans in both nationalised banks and cooperative societies if his party came to power, hoping, as a consequence, he said, for a 3-4% rise in vote share for his party.

As Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, running the only Congress government in southern India, tries to remain in favour of the electorate ahead of the May 12 elections to the state assembly, he has his task cut out. Among other steps, the government waived Rs 8,165 crore of farm loans from cooperative banks in 2017, claiming this would benefit more than 2.2 million farmers.

Rural Karnataka, which accounts for 154 (69%) of the state’s 224 legislative constituencies, has to remain the primary focus. Karnataka’s farmers, battling drought and water shortage, have been under dire financial duress, and how well the Siddaramaiah government is seen to handle this challenge will be among the factors that will determine a positive outcome for his government.

While the government is implementing the farm loan waiver, experts believe that the such a move will help in the short-run to win elections, but will not help in the welfare of farmers in the long term till agriculture is made more remunerative.

In both districts, families in which farmers had killed themselves said the ex-gratia compensation of Rs 500,000 had not diminished their loan burden, primarily because erratic rainfall and unremunerative prices have squeezed incomes, perpetuating dependence on moneylenders.

Nevertheless, the farmers and their families said they appreciated the support provided by the government in the form of loan waivers and ex-gratia compensation, despite delays in paying out monthly pensions. Farmers we spoke to in Yadgir said that they would vote for the present government, while in Mandya which has strong Vokkaliga (sect) presence and is a Janata Dal (Secular) stronghold, they are undecided, although they were not unhappy with the government.

Read more on → Karnataka Farmers

Karnataka Elections 2018: BJP fields most criminals, Congress the richest candidates

BJP at the first spot and Congress at second position in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background in Karnataka Assembly Election 2018. Catch latest updates on Karnataka polls 2018.

 

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 » The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is at the first spot and the Congress is at the second position in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background in the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The top three candidates with highest assets among all the candidates in fray belong to the ruling Congress — Priyakrishna, from Govindarajanagar constituency with Rs 10.20 billion worth total assets, N Nagaraju from Hosakote Assembly seat with assets valued at Rs 10.15 billion and the state Energy Minister D K Shivakumar from Kanakapura segment with Rs 8.4 billion assets.

The ADR released the report after analysing the affidavits filed by 2,560 candidates, which said that 391 candidates declared criminal cases against themselves.

Of the total candidates, the watchdog could not analyse details of 95 candidates belonging to national, regional, local and fringe parties, as their affidavits were badly scanned or were incomplete on the websites of the karnataka polls panel and the Chief Electoral Officer of the southern state.

“Among major parties, 83 (37%) out of 224 candidates from BJP, 59 (27%) out of 220 candidates analysed from Indian Nataional Congress, 41 (21%) out of 199 candidates analysed from Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)], 5 (20%) out of 25 candidates analysed from Janata Dal (United) [JD (U)] , 5 (19%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Aam Aadmi Party [AAP] and 108 (10%) out of 1090 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits,” said the report.

“There are 254 (10%) candidates who have declared serious criminal cases registered against themselves, four candidates have declared case related to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302) against themselves, and 25 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-307) against themselves,” said the report, adding that “23 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women”.

Read More on → BJP Candidates