Karnataka Governor should invite post-poll coalition to form government: Congress

Even as the BJP also vied to form the new government in Karnataka as the single largest party, the Congress on Tuesday cited the example of Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur and said Governor Vajubhai Vala should invite the Congress-JD-S coalition to form the new government in the southern state.

Talking to the media here, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that the post-poll coalition of the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular of H.D Deve Gowda was "poised for a majority" in the new Karnataka Assembly.

While the BJP has emerged as the single largest party with likely 104 seats, the Congress is set to bag 78 and the JD-S 38 seats.

Surjewala said the coalition had bagged a 56 per cent vote share.

Citing Goa and Manipur where Assembly polls were held in March 2017 and in Meghalaya where polls were held in March 2018, the Congress leader said that the Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the three states but the post-poll coalitions involving the BJP were invited to form the governments there.

"The country's law, the Constitution and the standards of morality are very clear that any coalition -- even if it is post-poll coalition and if it has the full majority -- then the Governor has no other option but to invite that coalition to form the government," Surjewala said.

"Hence, we expect that the Congress-JD-S alliance will be very soon invited to form the Karnataka government according to past precedents, Supreme Court judgments and established constitutional traditions," he said.

The Congress and the JD-S on Tuesday staked claim to form the government after the Karnataka elections threw up a hung Assembly.

After meeting the Governor, the Congress declared that it was giving unconditional support to the JD-S, which finished third in the race behind the BJP and the Congress.

--IANS

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