The BJP has only 105 members in the Assembly that currently has 221 members (excluding the 3 rebel MLAs that were disqualified a day earlier).
It is a massive blunder on the part of the Governor, to invite BJP state leader B.S. Yeddyurappa to form the government at this juncture, and to have him sworn in as Chief Minister on July 26. There is no justification in our Constitution for what the Governor has just done.
Excluding the BJP’s strength in the Assembly and two other members, the rest of the members entirely belong to the two opposition parties Congress and the JDS. So, if the BJP is to prove its majority at the invitation of the governor, it has only one option: to break the integrity of the two opposition parties and to get their members to support the BJP in the upcoming trust vote. It is this prospect that makes the Governor’s invitation to the BJP so wrong in the eyes of the law.
The Constitution insists that the Governor should be mindful of the manner in which a party with the most seats, which falls short of a majority, can hope to gather numbers. Only if there is a free float of independent MLAs or smaller unaffiliated parties could the Governor call upon a party to gather a majority, by persuading that free float to supply the required majority. Karnataka has no such free float and the people voted in May, 2018 in such a way as to tightly distribute their votes among three bigger political parties.
The opposition should question the actions of the Governor in the Court and the Court will be bound to declare the invitation of the Governor as void, as well as the swearing in of Mr.Yeddyurappa as the Chief Minister and the results of any motion for a trust vote that may be held by him (Yeddyurappa).
It is difficult to imagine why the State is being put through a wholly avoidable controversy here. The Governor has exhibited serious ignorance of our Constitution and his very desirability to continue in office is eroded by this blunder.
(The writer is a Supreme Court Advocate)
