Yediyurappa Begins Spell as Karnataka CM, With New Spelling

Reports said the Congress and JD(S) had chosen to boycott the swearing-in.

Bengaluru: After days of drama, courtesy JDS-Congress MLAs, which resulted in a trust vote on the floor of Karnataka Assembly and saw the alliance defeated, BJP state chief Yediyurappa finally staked claim to form the government on Friday morning and was sworn in by evening. (Also read: Karnataka BJP Delegation Arrives in Delhi, to Discuss Future Course With Amit Shah)

That, however, also came after some waiting and a name change. Yes, Karnataka’s new Chief Minister isn’t BS Yeddyurappa, as he has been known all this while, but has dropped a ‘D’ for an ‘I’. Yediyurappa took the oath as the 25th CM of the state. He was administered the oath of office by Governor Vajubhai Vala.

Reports said the Congress and JD(S) had chosen to boycott the swearing-in. “Our party’s state president Dinesh Gundu Rao has directed our leaders, former ministers and legislators to boycott Yediyurappa’s oath-taking ceremony as chief minister, as he has no moral right to assume power when his party does not have the majority in the Assembly,” said Congress spokesman Ravi Gowda.

Reports, however, point out that Yediurappa always spelt his name thus till 2007 when he became the CM for just a week. Back then, he changed the spelling to Yeddyurappa, reportedly on the advice of numerologists. He was ridiculed as ‘Yeddy’, how newspapers mentioned him in headlines, stands for moron in Kannada. That’s when media was told to call him BSY instead.

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A portal pointed out that the BSY’s office at the Vidhan Souda also bears the new spelling on the nameplate.

Meanwhile, Yediyurappa has already given directions, telling all department secretaries to put on hold the orders given by caretaker CM HD Kumaraswamy in July till they’re looked into by the chief secretary or the department secretaries.

Ahead of taking the oath, Yediyurappa asserted that there would be no politics of vengeance in his rule and he would take the Opposition along. In his address to BJP workers before proceeding to the Raj Bhavan for the swearing-in, he said, “We have to show the difference in the administration.”