New Delhi: Karnataka’s new Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said that he will prove his majority in the state Assembly on Monday, i.e., July 29. Addressing a press conference in the state secretariat, Yediyurappa said, “At the cabinet meeting held soon after I took oath as Chief Minister, I decided to go for floor test in the Assembly on Monday at 10 a.m., to prove majority.”
Earlier in the say, the BJP’s state unit chief met Governor Vajubhai Vala and staked claim to form government in Karnataka. “As the Governor has given permitted our party (BJP) to form the government, I will be taking oath around 6-6.15 p.m. today (Friday) evening at Raj Bhavan,” a beaming Yediyurappa told reporters after meeting Vala.
“Our party’s national President Amit Shah asked Yeddyurappa over phone from Delhi to stake claim for forming the next government and take oath as chief minister at the earliest,” BJP’s spokesman G. Madhusudan told IANS.
The BJP’s decision to stake claim to form government for the fourth time in the southern state comes a day after Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar disqualified three Congress legislators for defying their party’s whip and three days after the shaky JD-S-Congress coalition government collapsed on July 23.
Notably, on July 25, the Speaker mentioned that the resignations belonging to two Congress MLAs, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli, and one Independent, R Shankar, were “not voluntary and genuine”.
“I wasn’t in Bengaluru then and when I got back, I was told about the resignations. After that, they went to SC and told the apex court that I was missing,” he said.
As a result, they were disqualified with immediate effect until the term of this House is complete, i.e., till May 2023. Kumar added that they would be barred from contesting even if there is a by-election on these seats.
Earlier this month, HD Kumaraswamy-led Karnataka government plunged into crisis after16 lawmakers, 13 from the Congress and 3 from the JDS put in their papers over dissatisfaction with the then Congress-JD(S) ruling coalition.