Chandrababu Naidu hails SC's order on Karnataka floor test

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday hailed Supreme Court's order regarding the floor test in Karnataka Assembly and disapproved of Governor Vajubhai Vala's decision to appoint K.G. Bopaiah as pro-tem speak of the state legislative assembly.

Naidu took to Twitter and wrote, "We respect and welcome the verdict of Hon'ble Supreme Court. Governor should have followed the Democratic conventions in appointing protem speaker. We expect that the spirit of Supreme Court judgement will be protected."

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Politburo member Yanamala Rama Krishnudu also hailed the apex court's decision.

Krishnudu in a statement said, "We welcome today's Supreme Court orders on Karnataka floor test. The court has corrected the Karnataka Governor's mistake to some extent. Karnataka Governor's actions led to chances for horse-trading, but the SC's orders could prevent horse-trading chances. Karnataka Governor with RSS ideology had acted in the favour of BJP."

"Governor's actions have not only hurt the parliamentary democracy, but also murdered the constitution. Karnataka Governor has misused his discretionary power and has invited BJP even though it doesn't have the required numbers. When hung assembly arises, uniform model should be adopted in all the states. It is not fair to follow different traditions in different states when hung assembly arises," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ruled that a floor test should be conducted on Saturday at 4 pm for BJP to prove their majority in the Karnataka assembly.

The decision was taken after the top court heard the arguments for and against the petition filed by the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) following Governor Vajubhai Vala's invitation to the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government in the state.

The BJP has 104 MLAs but they are still short of the simple majority mark of 113 by nine MLAs and have been given 24 hours to prove the same in the assembly by the apex court.

However, if two 'missing' Congress MLAs do not get to vote tomorrow, the halfway mark will fall to 111.

On the other hand, Congress (78 seats) and JD-S (37 seats), along with two independent candidates, have formed a post-poll alliance and are staking claim to form the government in Karnataka, with a total of 117 MLAs.