Yeddyurappa says he is 100 percent confident of winning trust vote

Bengaluru: BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka for the third time on Friday expressed his confidence that his government will prove majority on the floor of the House on Saturday. Despite the saffron party, winning just 104 seats in the assembly, he said he will win the trial of strength “100 per cent.”
“We will abide by the Supreme Court verdict…we have got 100 percent support and cooperation to prove the majority,” Yeddyurappa told media persons here after the apex court order asking him to win trust vote at 4 pm on Saturday.
“Amidst all these political games, we will prove our majority tomorrow. We will obey the Supreme Court order,” Yeddyurappa said.
The BJP has 104 MLAs and seven additional votes are required if the BJP government is to survive, which can happen only when MLAs from either the Congress or the JD(S) defect to the saffron party, resign or abstain from voting. Resignation of 16 MLAs would bring down the number required for victory during the trust vote to 103, one less than what the BJP has.
On Wednesday, JD(S) leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had claimed that the BJP was trying to repeat “Operation Kamala” to come to power in the state. “Operation Kamala” was used in 2008 when the BJP under the leadership of Yeddyurappa didn’t have a majority of its own in the assembly. The BJP is said to have managed to persuade three Congress and four JD(S) MLAs to resign, allegedly by offering money and office.
They later contested by-polls on the BJP ticket and five of them won. It had done the trick for the BJP as their resignations brought down the number required to prove majority in the House.
In the other two scenarios, where MLAs of the combine cross-vote or abstain from voting, they would attract the provisions of the anti-defection law and can be disqualified.
For the moment, statistics are clearly against the BJP, as its rival alliance has the support of 116 MLAs—the Congress (78), the JD(S) (37) and its pre-poll partner the BSP one. It has also claimed the support of an independent MLA.