With 19 MLAs including four Independent ministers withdrawing support from the B.S. Yeddyurappa government, the first-ever BJP government in South India is facing its first crisis of confidence.
On receiving a letter from 19 MLAs, including five Independent legislators, Karnataka governor H.R. Bharadwaj asked chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to prove his majority on the floor of the state Assembly before October 12. After meeting Mr Bharadwaj in the evening, three hours after he had sought time, Mr Yeddyurappa announced that he would prove his majority on October 11.
Mr Yeddyurappa, who convened a state Cabinet meeting after all three of his emissaries failed to win over the rebels, was reported to be bent on dissolving the House, saying that the “sympathy factor” that had brought him to power after the JD(S) betrayed him would bring him back to power once again. Persuaded otherwise, he issued a fresh appeal to the dissidents, led by his close friend turned bête noire, excise minister M.P. Renukacharya to drop the rebellion.
Sources within the BJP indicated that the letter withdrawing support had not been seen by anyone in the party and that until they had examined the exact wording they could not say with any certainty whether the dissidents would be liable to disqualification under the anti-defection law.
In an unprecedented move, the chief minister openly offered the rebels Cabinet berths if they returned. So far, only two of the rebels have relented — B.P. Harish and Doddanna Gowda. Mr Gowda had signed the letter but flew back to Bengaluru and requested the governor to take his name off the list after he had a change of heart. Mr Harish, who had not signed the letter, also returned and said that he continued to support the chief minister. Mr Yeddyurappa also dropped four ministers who are Independents from his Cabinet — P.M. Narendra Swamy, D. Sudhakar, Venkataramanappa and Shivaraj Thangadagi. Three others — agriculture minister S.A. Ravindranath, IT & BT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and public libraries minister, Revunaik Belamagi — have come forward to put in their papers so that their portfolios could be given to the dissidents.
Mr Yeddyurappa, who left overnight for Kerala’s famed Raja Rajeshwari temple in Taliparamba, 30 km from Kannur, to seek blessings, has accused Congress leader Siddaramaiah and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy of acting in concert to bring down his government, while senior aides have also attacked the governor, Mr Bharadwaj. The two Opposition leaders continued to maintain that they had no role to play and that the government would fall on its own. However, much of the celebrations in the Congress were doused when
reports emerged of six Congress legislators — all Lingayats — being approached by the BJP.
The CM’s critics within the BJP said, meanwhile, that the chief minister’s insistence on the reinduction of two of his close confidantes, Shobha Karandlaje and V. Somanna, was the sole reason for the dissidence. Balachandra Jarkiholi, a minister and one of the key figures in the dissident group, said several ministers planned to resign on the day Mr
Yeddyurappa expanded his Cabinet by dropping Shivanagouda Naik and Goolihatti Shekar.
In the 224-member Assembly, the BJP and Independents together had a strength of 123. After Wednesday’s developments it has been reduced to 104, reducing the ruling party to a minority. The BJP requires the support of 113 members for a majority. The BJP earlier had 117 MLAs, including the Speaker, followed by the Congress (73), JD-S (28) and Independents (six).
Fourteen of the dissident Karnataka MLAs, including some of the ministers, arrived in Kochi on Wednesday night from Chennai, airport sources said. They later left for the Alapuzha resort near the city. JD(S) insiders said they wanted to ensure that the CM would not have access to them and planned to move them from one spot to another until the vote of confidence on October 11.