Mixed reactions to governor’s decision in Mysuru; CPI stages protest

Mysuru: Protests and dharna marked Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to invite the BJP to form the government and giving it 15 days to prove its majority in the house. While a section of constitutional experts felt the governor was right in inviting the single largest party to form the government, many said that his decision was violative of the Constituition.
Mysore Kannada Vedike lashed out at the Congress, JD(S), and BJP for making the voters look like fools. Members of the Vedike here on Friday said, “In their hunger for power, all the three parties have not only exposed their desperation but have also sent out a clear message that they do not care about what the voter wants.”
Slamming the resort politics of Congress and JD(S), the protesters who gathered at Agrahara Circle said that the Congress and JD(S) herded their MLAs like sheep transporting them to a resort. “Resort politics is a black mark on democracy and this should not be allowed,” they added.
Demanding that the governor invite the Congress and JD(S) to form the government, members of the Communist Party of India (CPI) to staged a protest near Mysuru Law Court. “We condemn the governor’s action inviting the BJP to prove its majority while Congress and JD(S) have a combined tally of 116 seats, ahead of the simple majority of 112 seats,” said the CPI.
“Just because BJP emerged as the single largest party, the governor invited them. This is undemocratic anti-constitutional on his part. A governor is supposed to protect the Constitution but in this case, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala behaved like an agent of the BJP,” said H R Sheshadri, convener of the CPI.
Writer KS Bhagwan too said the governor should have invited the Congress –JD(S) form the government. “The governor has gone against the Constitution by inviting BJP which doesn’t have the numbers. The BJP has murdered democracy. We will not keep quiet if the state of affairs continue, he added.
The Supreme Court decision asking BJP to prove its majority on Saturday is a good decision and we welcome it, said Shivaram, president, Karnataka State Backward Communities Awareness Organization.