BJP to protest JD(S) and Congress forming government in Karnataka ahead of oath-taking ceremony

Bengaluru: Unfazed by the fall of its 3-day government last week in Karnataka, a defiant Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit will protest across the state on Wednesday against the formation of the Janata Dal (Secular) - Congress coalition government, said a party official on Tuesday. “As the Congress-JD (S) alliance hijacked the people’s mandate and formed an unholy alliance to form a coalition government on Wednesday, we are observing the occasion as the ‘anti-people’s mandate day’ across the state,” said BJP’s spokesman S. Shantaram in a statement in Bengaluru.

[caption id=“attachment_4476625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] State Governor Vajubhia Vala invited JD (S) legislative party leader HD Kumaraswamy to take oath as the 25th chief minister on Wednesday at 4.30 pm on the grand steps of the state secretariat (Vidhana Soudha) in the presence of national and regional leaders and about an estimated 1 lakh people. “Thousands of our party cadres and functionaries will stage a black flag demo at cities and districts to draw the people’s attention to the opportunistic alliance of the duo to keep the BJP out of power,” Shantaram noted. Party’s state unit president and its three-time chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will lead the demo at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the city centre at 11.15 am ahead of the oath-taking ceremony in the evening. Party’s state unit general secretaries Shobha Karandaleje, Arvind Limbavalli R. Ashok and N. Ravi Kumar, Lok Sabha member from Bengaluru Central P.C. Mohan will be present on the occasion. “We have also decided to boycott the swearing-in of Kumaraswamy and Congress state unit president G. Parameshwara as deputy chief minster as they don’t have the mandate or moral ground to form the government,” another party official told IANS here. In the 12 May election, voters gave a hung assembly in 222 constituencies, with 37 for the JD (S), including one from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 78 for the Congress and 104 for the BJP, which fell seven less than the 111-halfway mark for a simple majority and passing the floor test.