Bengaluru: The Congress is planning to take its newly elected MLAs out of the Eagleton Resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru to an unnamed location in Kerala, NDTV reported on Thursday. The move comes amid hectic jockeying over MLAs after BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the CM although his party is eight short of a simple majority.
Governor Vajubhai Vala has allowed the BJP the luxury of 15 days to prove majority in the House—a move that most believe will abet efforts to lure or threaten opposition MLAs to break away from the Congress-JD(S) post-poll alliance.
Allegations of the BJP using the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department to pressure Congress and the JD(S) MLAs to break away from the post-poll alliance are also doing the rounds.
JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy alleged on Wednesday that the BJP was out shopping for MLAs and had launched “Operation Lotus Part 2″—a throwback to 2008 when, in a manoeuvre dubbed as “Operation Lotus”, six JDS and Congress MLAs resigned and crossed over to the BJP which was struggling to cobble up the numbers even then. Kumaraswamy also alleged that 32 of his MLAs had been offered Rs 100 crore each and Cabinet berths in the Yeddyurappa government if they came out in support of the BJP.
Meanwhile Congress leaders on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Gandhi statue next to the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, against the swearing in of B S Yeddyurappa as chief minister.
Several senior Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot, Mallikarjuna Kharge, party’s General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal, sat at the foot of the statue, staging the protest.
The newly elected Congress legislators, who are staying at the resort, also joined the protest. Janata Dal (Secular) legislators and leaders will also be joining the agitation soon, party sources said. Speaking to reporters, outgoing CM Siddaramaiah termed as “unprecedented” Governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to grant 15 days time to Yeddyurappa for proving majority in the assembly.
He said Yeddyurappa would now have to furnish the list of MLA’s supporting him immediately. Yeddyurappa was administered the oath of office and secrecy by the Governor at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan amid loud cheering by his supporters.
Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to stay the swearing-in after a rare post-midnight courtroom battle unfolded dramatically over the Congress-JD(S) combine’s legal push to stall government formation. After a nearly three-and-a-half-hour hearing beginning 2:11 AM, a three-judge apex court bench also made it clear that the swearing-in and the government formation would be subject to the final outcome of the case before it.
The bench, comprising justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan, posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow morning and ordered placing before it the letter of support from MLAs presented by the BJP to Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala while staking claim to form the government.