Invite JD(S)-Congress to form government: Yechury

New Delhi: In the context of the fractured mandate thrown up in Karnataka, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury pulled out the example of the 1998 general elections, when in a similar situation President K.R. Narayanan had weighed in favour of Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Mr. Yechury hoped that the BJP would agree to the same principle now. “On paper the JD(S)-Congress in Karnataka have a majority. None else does. They should be allowed to prove it on the floor of the House. See the reasoned decision of President K.R. Narayanan in 1998 that favoured the BJP then. Surely, the BJP would agree to the same principle now,” he said in a tweet, while also posting the press communiqué issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1998.

The communiqué said that when no party or pre-election alliance of parties is in a clear majority, the head of the state has in India and elsewhere given the first opportunity to the leader of the party or combination of parties that has the largest number of seats subject to floor test.

The CPI(M) potiburo too issued a statement strongly opposing the time being given to the BJP to indulge in “horse trading” when the results clearly show that it does not have a majority.

The politburo pointed out that the Governors under the BJP regime, in the past, followed the principle of swearing in a government on the basis of post-election arrangement between parties, be it in Goa, Manipur or Meghalaya.

“The same principle must be adopted in Karnataka and the Chief Minister-designate of the post-poll coalition must be sworn-in and asked to prove the majority on the floor of the House in accordance with the verdicts of the Supreme Court,” the politburo said in its statement.