Yeddy on throne of thorns

​Bengaluru: BJP legislature party leader B S Yeddyurappa took oath as the Karnataka Chief Minister here on Thursday, hours after the Supreme Court declined to stay his swearing-in ceremony. Governor Vajubhai Vala administered the oath of office and secrecy to Yeddyurappa at 9 am at the Raj Bhavan amid tight security.

The beleaguered Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leaders, however, protested against the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa and termed the Governor's decision "unconstitutional". "Constitutionally, we (JD-S and Congress) should have been given the chance to form the government as we together have the majority in the assembly. The Governor's decision to invite the BJP to form the government is against the Constitution," state unit Congress chief G Parameshwara told reporters here.

Earlier, a three-judge bench of the apex court rejected a joint writ petition, filed by the Congress and the JD-S on Wednesday night, to halt the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa as the Chief Minister at a special pre-dawn hearing.

The top court, however, said the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa was subject to the final outcome of the matter before it and posted the case for further hearing at 10.30 a.m on Friday. The bench, headed by Justice A K Sikri, also sought the letter Yeddyurappa wrote to the Governor on Wednesday, informing him about his election as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader in Karnataka.

Vala on Wednesday night invited Yeddyurappa to form the government and prove within 15 days that he had majority in the legislative assembly. Although the BJP emerged as the single-largest party winning 104 seats in the May 12 assembly election, it fell short of eight seats from the 112-halfway mark in the lower House, in which the Congress trailed behind with 78 wins and the regional JD-S 37 seats. 

This is the third time Yeddyurappa took oath as the state Chief Minister, a decade after he became the BJP's first Chief Minister in south India in May 2008 when the party came to power for the first time in the southern state.