Yeddyurappa sworn in as Karnataka chief minister
Bengaluru, May 17 BJP legislature party leader B S Yeddyurappa was today sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka for a second time, after an overnight high-voltage legal battle in the Supreme Court.
The 75-year-old Lingayat strongman was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan amid loud cheering by his supporters.
Yeddyurappa was administered the oath alone, hours after the Supreme Court refused to stay his swearing-in.
Draped in a green shawl on his white safari suit, B S Yeddyurappa took the oath as Karnataka chief minister today in the name of God and farmers amid chants of “Modi, Modi” and sloganeering at the Raj Bhavan.
As Governor Vajubhai Vala administered Yeddyurappa the oath of secrecy and office, the man of the moment chose to take oath in the name of God and the farmers of Karnataka.
The 75-year old Lingayat strongman, who became chief minister for a second time, was projected in the run-up to assembly election as ‘Raitha Bandhu’ – the friend of the farmers.
Before leaving for Raj Bhavan, Yeddyurappa paid his obeisance at the Radhakrishna Temple here.
He was accompanied by his sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra, senior party functionaries including union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and Prakash Javadekar and BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao.
Amid Vedic hymns and playing of musical instrument ‘Naadaswaram’, the special prayers were performed.
After the swearing in, Yeddyurappa drove to the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, and bowed at the entrance steps before entering his office as the new chief minister of the state.
Earlier in the day, Wednesday, in a rare post-midnight courtroom battle, the Congress-JD(S) combine made a desperate legal push to stall the government formation.
Yeddyurappa has 15 days to prove his majority in the Assembly.
He was elected for the eighth time from the Shikaripura assembly segment in Shivamogga district of the Malnad region on May 12 when polling was held in 222 constituencies across the state and results were declared on Tuesday.
This is the third time Yeddyurappa took oath as the Karnataka Chief Minister, a decade after he became the BJP’s first Chief Minister in south India in May 2008 when the party came to power for the first time in Karnataka.
He was sworn-in for the first time as the chief minister in October 2007 as the party’s leader in the JD-S-BJP coalition government that lasted for over a month, resulting in President’s rule from November to April and mid-term assembly elections in May 2008.
The BJP has 104 MLAs in the House, eight short of the magic figure of 112.
Polling was held in 222 of the state’s 224 seats.
Election to the Jayanagar seat was countermanded following the death of the BJP candidate, while polling was deferred to May 28 for R R Nagar seat due to alleged electoral malpractices.
