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BS Yeddyurappa was sworn in at 9 am in Bengaluru as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, amid massive protest from Opposition parties. Governor Vajubhai Vala administered the oath to Yeddyurappa on Thursday. The BJP victory in the state is currently under scrutiny with the Congress and Janata Dal (United) moving Supreme Court in a sensational midnight manoeuvre to challenge the Governor Vajuvai Vala’s decision to invite the BJP to form government, despite being seven seats short of the required mandate, whereas the Cong-JD(S) combine exceeded it. However, in a rare pre-dawn hearing, the SC refused to defer the swearing-in of the new CM, though it reserved judgement on the government formation. The apex court has posted the matter for hearing on Friday. Until then, none of the council of ministers (apart from the CM himself) have been sworn in.
Wasting no time, Karnataka’s new chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Thursday transferred several senior IAS and IPS officers in the state just hours after being sworn-in. The top level reshuffle includes the transfers of the advocate general of the state, senior police officers and the additional chief secretary to the chief minister. A communique issued by the Governor’s House in the evening stated that Prabhuling K Navadagi has replaced Madhusudhan R Naik as the state’s advocate general with immediate effect.
Following BJP’s example, Opposition parties in four BJP ruled states staked claim to the government, claiming that if the Cong-JD(S) are not allowed to form government in Karnataka because BJP was the single largest party, the same should hold true for other states wrested from the Opposition by the BJP in recent elections.
Congress in Manipur, Meghalaya and Goa staked claims to the respective state governments. In all the three states, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party but the BJP had formed the government after making post-poll alliances. Joining the Congress was Rashtriya Janata Dal who challenged the BJP government in Bihar, claiming it had majority but was not allowed to form government in Bihar where BJP came to power in 2015.
Fearing a repeat of Operation Kamal, the congress and JD(S) in Karnataka went into overdrive to protect their respective MLAs from attempts at horse-trading by the BJP. According to the Congress, the BJP, which is seven MLAs short to form a simple majority in the Karnataka Assembly, has tried to poach its MLAs by offering them high political profiles and also Rs 100 crores, each. Both parties created a public spectacle by tethering all their state MLAs and stowing them off in clandestine private resorts. The Congress MLAs, who had until Thursday been in Bengaluru’s Eagleton Resorts, were packed into a mystery bus late Thursday night and moved to an undisclosed location. JD(S) MLAs, who had also been stowed in Shangrila Hotel in Bengaluru, were moved to an undisclosed location.
The Congress said it will observe “Save Democracy Day” on Friday with party workers and leaders holding protest marches at all district and state headquarters to protest the decision of Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala inviting BS Yeddyurappa to take oath as chief minister. It dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to prove the party’s majority in the Karnataka assembly if they were so confident of their numbers.
Bengal Panchayat elections 2018: The ruling Trinamool Congress on Thursday headed for a massive victory in West Bengal’s rural polls, bagging 19,394 seats in gram panchayats, while the BJP emerged as its main rival, though with a tally that was far lower than that of the TMC, according to results declared till the evening. State Election Commission (SEC) sources said the Trinamool was ahead in another 560 gram panchayat seats for which counting was in progress. The BJP had won 5,050 seats and was leading in 55 seats, the sources said.
The drama and excitement thrown up by the crisis in Karnataka crisis was not the lone case in the history of the Supreme Court burning the midnight oil. The historic hearing, which paved the way for Thursday’s swearing-in of BS Yeddyurappa as the Chief Minister of the state, witnessed examples cited by senior lawyers about some of the rare previous post-midnight hearings in the apex court. Read to find out what they were.
A Rs 4 per litre increase in petrol and diesel prices is in the offing if state-owned fuel retailers are to return to pre-Karnataka poll hiatus margin levels, brokerage firms said. No sooner had Karnataka polled to elect a new state government, state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) on Monday ended a 19-day hiatus in revising petrol and diesel prices and reverted to the practices of changing rates on a daily basis.
Taxing Matters: Six non-BJP ruled states on Thursday petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind against the terms of the 15th Finance Commission for deciding the share of states in taxes collected by the Centre, and said that they violate the federal principle as well as infringe upon the Constitution.
In a commendable performance, the Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Hyderabad Skippers by 14 runs in a race to stay alive in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League. They now face Rajasthan Royals on Saturday as they look to sneak into the playoffs.
Agree or disagree?
In its eagerness to install BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP government in Karnataka, the party high command may have shot itself in the leg. The state is back to old Lingayats versus Vokkaligas fight. The Vokkaligas, backbone of the Gowdas vote bank who have mended their relationship with the BJP in the last five years, have now turned against the saffron party for denying the CM post to a fellow Vokkaliga leader H D Kumaraswamy. Will Yeddyurappa’s ascension to the CM chair pen another chapter of the Lingayat-Vokkaliga rivalry?
In India, bullying is still commonplace, and there has been little done to prevent it. Even the anti-ragging law has not been updated to include the mention of sexual orientation or gender identity anywhere. Laws such as Section 377 have been used as an excuse to invalidate the need for sexuality education. However, people are still in a state of denial that we need to act in a state of urgency when it comes to addressing the mental health of growing up queers.
On reel
It was a night of high drama in Karnataka and in Delhi, before BS Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister of Karnataka. From the time Governor called him to take oath, to the wee hours of the morning, uncertainty remained on whether Supreme Court would stall the swearing-in. In the end, in spite of Congress moving the Supreme Court, Yeddyurappa managed to take oath for the third time.
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