Yediyurappa sworn in as Karnataka chief minister. Will his fortunes finally change?

BJP's Yediyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka at 6:45pm on Friday. The sudden development was announced by the Karnataka BJP on its Twitter handle after governor Vajubhai Vala gave Yediyurappa a week to prove its majority on the floor of the house.

In a period of political uncertainty for Karnataka, 15 MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) coalition had rebelled; in the trust vote that followed, the government fell by 7 votes (98 votes to 105). Yediyurappa had watched the opportunity slip from his hands in the aftermath of the May 2018 assembly elections, when the Congress-JD(S) combine pipped the aspiring chief minister to the post. After the trust vote on Tuesday, Yediyurappa waited for the "blessings" of the RSS and the central leadership. "I am waiting for instructions from Delhi. At any point of time we will call for legislature party and then head to the Raj Bhavan," Yediyurappa told reporters. 

This will be the fourth stint for Yediyurappa as the chief minister—the last one was after the May 2018 Assembly polls. He had to resign just three days after being sworn in, unable to muster majority after staking claim to form the government on the grounds that his party had emerged as the single largest one with 104 seats in the 225-member assembly.

Inviting MLAs of all political parties for the swearing in, Yediyurappa said he would also be sending a letter of invitation to outgoing chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah. "I will also try to contact Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah over phone, to invite them personally," he added.

Only three chief ministers in the history of Karnataka have completed full terms as chief minister. Yediyurappa is pulling no punches in that category, even changing his name from Yeddyurappa to Yediyurappa—his original name before 2007—upon the advice of an astrologer. 

2007 is when the BJP leader changed his name to Yediyurappa based on the advice of an astrologer. According to Rediff, “On October 11 2007, an astrologer advised the BJP leader to change his name from Yeddyurappa to Yediyurappa.” At that time, the JD(S)-BJP coalition ruling Karnataka was in turmoil over the issue of Yediyurappa becoming chief minister in place of then incumbent H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Within a month, the new 'Yeddyurappa' was able to become chief minister in November 2008, though his tenure lasted only a week. Whether the 'Yeddyurappa' name brought a change in fortunes is up for debate: He did become chief minister twice more, never coming close to completing a full term in office. News 18 reported on Friday numerologists and astrologers had advised the BJP leader to revert to Yediyurappa as the name change in 2007 apparently did not work.

The Congress slammed the move for government formation, saying that since the BJP did not have the numerical strength, it could not stake claim nor take the oath for any reason.

"Corruption Icon and Former Jail Bird Shri @BSYBJP has used his excellent Horse Trading skills to subvert democracy and come to power," the state Congress tweeted. "People of Karnataka remember his disastrous tenure as CM between 2008-2011, which ended with BSY in Jail," the tweet added.

Condemning the BJP's move, former Congress chief minister Siddarmaiah said Karnataka has become an experimental lab of the BJP.

He tweeted, "Karnataka assembly has become an experimental lab for Karnataka BJP and the BJP backed governor to try unconstitutional ways to form government. In what article of the constitution is the governor allowed to permit the party to form govt that doesn't have majority? It is shame!!"

He said the BJP has the strength of 105 which is way less than the half way mark.

"In no way BJP can form the government if constitution is followed," he said adding, this only proved that BJP has no belief in the democratic values.

The JD(S) tweeted, "The strength of the house is 222 (after disqualification of three MLAs) and the half-way mark is 112. However, B.S. Yeddyurappa approached the governor saying that he has 105 MLAs with him."

Proving majority in the assembly, winning the by-elections to seats vacated by the resignation of rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs, and ministry formation will be an immediate challenge for Yediyurappa, according to senior BJP leaders.

Yediyurappa has to play a balancing act by ensuring that those within the party are not sidelined, while also accommodating the rebel Congress-JD(S) legislators, whose resignation led to the collapse of the coalition government and helped the BJP to come to power, sources added.

This could be a difficult ask given that the speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar had already disqualified three rebel MLAs of the Congress— independent MLA R. Shankar, Congress MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumtahalli among them. Disqualification petitions are pending for the rest of the 13 MLAs, reports claimed. 

This might prove to be a blow to the BJP. The party is waiting for the resignations of the rebel MLAs to be accepted and for the Congress-JD(S) coalition mark to fall below the assembly's half-way strength. However, if an MLA is disqualified (resignation not accepted), that would pre-empt the possibilities of him becoming a minister when the next government is formed; he cannot be a member of the assembly till 2023, which is the duration of the 15th legislative assembly, under the provisions of the anti-defection law. They can, however, contest in the re-elections. If the BJP did indeed promise ministerial berths to some of the rebel MLAs, the disqualification might work against the saffron party.