The gladiatorial efforts of the Congress to get the Supreme Court to reverse governor Vajubhai Bala’s decision of inviting BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa to form the government may have failed to bear immediate results but it has certainly put the Centre on a sticky wicket.
A special bench comprising Justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan has directed the Centre to place before it two communications, sent by Yeddyurappa to Governor Vajubhai Vala in which he had staked claim to form the government, saying their perusal was necessary to decide the case.
The letter, which Times Now claims to have accessed, lists the support of only 104 MLAs and doesn’t even include the signature of Anand Singh of the Congress as was being suspected earlier.
TIMES NOW accesses letter confirming that 1 Congress MLA’s signature is missing from the letter of support #YeddyCMTest pic.twitter.com/hlfUxG1zfP
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 17, 2018
The Supreme Court could take a dim view of the governor’s decision if the BJP’s letter to the governor did not assure him of the party having the required numbers to form a government.
“We do not know what transpired in the meeting between the BJP leader (Yeddyurappa) and the Governor. I do not think B S Yeddyurappa is served or represented here. The whole thing is in a grey area and in a realm of speculation,” Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, told the Supreme Court—possibly to circumvent the basic question on whether the BJP has the support of 112 MLAs needed to form a government in the state.
Both Venugupal and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing three BJP MLAs Govind M Karjol, C M Udasi and Basavaraj Bommai, had opposed the Congress’s plea to defer or stay Yeddyurappa’s swearing-in.
Speaking in front of the Supreme Court bench during the overnight hearing, senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the seats won by the BJP, Congress and JD (S) and said the Congress-JD (S) combine had the majority in the house with 117 MLAs while the BJP had only 104 seats which was below the majority mark of 112.
Singhvi also questioned the Governor’s decision to give 15 days time to Yeddyurppa to prove majority in the house and claimed that this might lead to “horse trading” and “poaching” of MLAs.
Yeddyurappa’s letter to the governor is expected to be key to how the top court views the governor Bala’s decision. And going by the speculations that the letter doesn’t assure the governor of the BJP enjoying the support of the 112 MLAs, it is likely to put the Centre on the judicial back-foot.