The Hindu : Front Page : Kumaraswamy to be sworn in today

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Friday, Feb 03, 2006

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Front Page

Kumaraswamy to be sworn in today

S. Rajendran

Last hurdle surmounted with the High Court refusing to stay the swearing-in

Bangalore: With the Karnataka High Court declining to stay the swearing-in, the path has been cleared for the formation of the second coalition Government in the State on Friday. The Bharatiya Janata Party is sharing power, for the first time in the south, with the Janata Dal (Secular), which will not have the blessings of its patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda.

A Division Bench said it could not stay the swearing-in on the basis of the petition by three Independents that H.D. Kumaraswamy, JD(S) working president, and 34 other party legislators had violated the anti-defection law. The petition sought disqualification of the rebels.

Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, who invited Mr. Kumaraswamy to form the Government, will administer the oath of office and secrecy to him as Chief Minister on the flight of stairs of the Vidhana Soudha here at 12.10 p.m. B.S.Yediyurappa of the BJP, till now Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, will be sworn in Deputy Chief Minister. Within eight days of assuming office, Mr. Kumaraswamy will have to face the trial of strength in the House.

Gowda will stay away

Mr. Gowda will not attend the swearing-in and will leave for New Delhi to hold discussions with the national leaders of the party. He has categorically conveyed to the party legislators that the new Government will not have his blessings. "You can go your way and I will go my way."

All the party legislators, who had kept away from Mr. Gowda for over a fortnight, visited his house on Thursday evening to seek his blessings for the new Government. But he politely turned them away. The Chief Minister-designate was conspicuous by his absence. For the most part of the day he was at Sringeri.

Sources in the JD (S) told The Hindu that Mr. Gowda would remain active in politics and function as an "opposition leader" of sorts in case the Government faltered.

Earlier in the day, he held a meeting with senior leaders including M.P. Prakash, P.G.R. Sindhia, D. Manjunath, Mahadeva Prasad and Merajuddin Patel (all former Ministers) and assured them that the party's interests would be protected. He said he would place all facts on the latest political developments before the national executive.

Mr. Gowda told The Hindu that legal experts advised him that it would not be prudent to take disciplinary action straightway against the MLAs. That news came as a big relief to the JD(S) MLAs and the BJP, which was anxious over the developments in the JD (S) over the past three days.

The former Prime Minister said: "I have given up the chase since there was no solution in sight to the vexed problem. It started with the party legislators wanting to wage a war against the Congress humiliation and it has now ended with their choosing a path, which I will never accept in my life." He said in anguish: "My days are over."

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