With eight members short of the mandatory halfway mark, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assured the Karnataka governor (pictured) it would prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly and requested him to allow them to form a government, when the coalition formed by the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) already had the requisite has numbers.
This is a blatant admission that they would fill the gap by horse trading. If the governor — who started his political career at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and was also a member of the BJP — allows the BJP to go ahead, it would be akin to murder of democracy. Even when the BJP had only a few seats in Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur they got a BJP coalition government in those states with the help of the respective governors. Why did the governor of Karnataka not invite the JD(S) chief to form a coalition government when the JD(S)-Congress combine had the required numbers? Why this partisan attitude by the governor?
Tharcius S Fernando, Chennai
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