Jolt To BJP As SC Orders Karnataka Assembly Floor Test At 4pm Tomorrow

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a floor test in the Karnataka Assembly at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Bharatiya Janata Party legislative party leader B.S. Yeddyurappa was on Thursday sworn in as the Chief Minister after the May 12 elections threw up a hung assembly.

The BJP had won 104 seats in the Assembly elections held in 222 segments, falling eight short of the 112 halfway mark. The Congress won 78 seats and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 37. The Congress later said it would support a JD-S led government.

Yeddyurappa Confident Of Winning Floor Test

After the Supreme Court ordered a Karnataka Assembly floor test on Saturday, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Friday said he is confident of winning the required majority.

"We welcome the Supreme Court order of floor test at 4 p.m. on Saturday. We are confident of proving our majority," Yeddyurappa told reporters here.

The apex court's order for floor test comes a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader took oath as the Chief Minister.

With the BJP winning 104 seats in the May 12 Assembly election held in 222 segments, it fell eight short of the 112 halfway mark to win a simple majority.

Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), which formed a post-poll alliance, have won 78 and 37 seats respectively.

Modi Speaks To Deve Gowda

A day after BJP's B.S. Yeddyurappa took oath as Karnataka Chief Minister dashing the hopes of JD-S-Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he spoke to Janata Dal-Secular supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and wished him on his birthday.

"Spoke to our former Prime Minister Shri H.D. Deve Gowdaji and conveyed birthday wishes to him. I pray for his good health and long life," Modi said in a tweet.

Yeddyurappa is yet to prove a majority in the Karnataka Assembly, and the Congress and JD-S have alleged that the BJP is trying to poach their newly elected lawmakers, as it has fallen short of eight seats to the 112 halfway mark in the lower House.

The JD-S had won 38 seats along with its ally BSP, while the Congress won 78 seats, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party winning 104 seats in the May 12 assembly election.

The Congress-JD-S stitching up a hasty post-poll alliance approached the Governor on Tuesday to form the government, as also did the BJP.

But Governor Vajubhai Valla invited Yeddyurappa to form the government and prove within 15 days that he had majority in the legislative assembly.

Priority Is To Keep Our MLAs Safe: DK Shivakumar

An embattled Congress and JD-S have shifted their newly-elected MLAs to Hyderabad from here to prevent the BJP from poaching them ahead of the crucial floor test in the new Assembly, officials said on Friday.

"We have shifted 36 of our legislators in a bus to Hyderabad to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from poaching them to defect," Janata Dal-Secular spokesman Ramesh Babu told IANS here.

JD-S state President H.D. Kumaraswamy, however, returned to Bengaluru, clarified Babu.

The Congress also shifted its MLAs to Hyderabad in a separate luxury bus to prevent the BJP from approaching them.

Party leader D.K. Shivakumar told reporters here that the priority for the party was to keep its legislators safe.

"Our priority is to keep all our MLAs safe and intact. There is a lot of pressure on their families. So some of the legislators have been shifted to Hyderabad, while some have stayed back in Bengaluru," Shivakumar said.

The Congress leader, however, refused to specify how many legislators were shifted to Hyderabad in neighbouring Telangana.

In the May 12 Assembly election in 222 segments, the BJP won 104, Congress 78 and JD-S 37.

As Kumaraswamy won from both Channapatna and Ramanagara assembly segments, the party effectively has 37 votes, including one vote from its Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ally, as the JD-S state president can vote for one seat.

As the BJP is eight short of the 112-halfway mark for a simple majority to win the trust vote, Congress and JD-S which have formed a post-poll alliance, fear their MLAs would be poached to defect the confidence motion.

IANS