Congress and the JD(S) have met Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala and staked claim to form the government.
New Delhi: With Karnataka assembly polls throwing a hung verdict, the ball is now in the court of governor Vajubhai Vala, a veteran BJP leader who was a minister in the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat.
The BJP has emerged as the single largest party, winning 85 seats and leading in 19 others. The party is, however, likely to fall short of the magic number of 112 to form the government in the state. The Congress, which is projected to get 78 seats, moved quickly to announce its support to a JD(S)-led government; the JD(S) is leading in 38 seats.
The Congress and the JD(S) have met the governor and staked claim to form the government.
There is no law that makes it incumbent on the governor to invite any post-poll alliance to form the government even if they have the requisite numbers.
As per conventions, the governor is expected to first invite the pre-poll alliance with requisite numbers, followed by the single largest party and then the post-poll alliance. But this tradition was given a go-by in recent times when governors of Goa and Manipur invited post-poll alliances to form the government, ignoring the claims of the Congress that had emerged as the single largest party in both cases.
Vala can choose to revert to the established tradition and invite the single largest party, the BJP.
Vajubhai Vala, 79, joined the RSS in his school days and later joined the Jana Sangh, the BJP’s precursor. He was a political protégé of Keshubhai Patel and was also a minister in his government. After Patel was replaced by Narendra Modi in 2001, he needed someone to vacate his seat to enable him to enter the assembly.
When Haren Pandya refused, Vala vacated his Rajkot-II seat to enable Modi to contest the by-election. Modi later shifted to Maninagar assembly seat but Vala’s gesture helped him to gain the confidence of Modi who appointed him finance minister in his cabinet. Vala was speaker of the state assembly in September 2014 when he was moved to Bengaluru Raj Bhavan.