Dharam resigns, Gowda Jr new CM

H.D. Kumaraswamy, the leader of the JD(S)-BJP combine, will take oath as the next chief minister of Karnataka on February 3.

H.D. Kumaraswamy, the leader of the JD(S)-BJP combine, will take oath as the next chief minister of Karnataka on February 3.

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On Saturday, governor T.N. Chaturvedi invited Kumaraswamy to form the new government shortly after the Congress’s Dharam Singh resigned from the post. The JD(S)-BJP alliance has been given eight days to prove its majority on the floor of the House.

The 46-year-old Kumaraswamy, according to the agreement between the JD(S) and the BJP, will stay in office for 20 months. A BJP candidate will take over for the next 20 months. Incidentally, Dharam Singh was in office for exactly the same period. BJP’s B.S. Yediyurappa will be the new deputy chief minister. The ministry will have 16 members of the JD(S) and 18 of the BJP.

All portfolios held by the Congress will go to the JD(S). Earlier in the day, Dharam Singh requested the governor to ask the Speaker to reconvene the House so that he could prove his majority.

The governor turned down his plea pointing out technical hurdles. Singh’s resignation followed. “This is a mockery of parliamentary democracy,” Singh said later.

This brings down the curtains on the ten-day political crisis triggered by Kumaraswamy’s group of rebel JD(S). The group ditched Dharam Singh’s government and forged an alliance with the BJP.

Kumaraswamy is the first first-time MLA to occupy the top post. Dubbed by critics as a political novice, he has won just twice and lost four times in elections.