BJP top brass to witness taking over of first party govt in south

New Delhi, Nov 10 (UNI) As the decks have been cleared for the installation of first ever BJP-led government in South India, almost the entire top brass of the party will be flying to Karnataka to witness B S Yeddyurrappa taking over as Chief Minister on Monday.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani, BJP President Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha and other party office-bearers will fly to Bangalore in a special aircraft to see the party taking over the reins of power from the ramparts of Vidhana Soudha, the seat of political power in the southern state.

The saffron party, which emerged the single largest party with 79 MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, rode to power in the state by entering into a power sharing formula with H D Deve Gowda's JD(S).

According to the agreement, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy took over as Chief Minister for the initial 20 months after which it had been decided that the power will be transferred to the BJP.

But the pact ran into rough weather when the JD (S) refused to transfer the Chief Ministership to the BJP, resulting in the House being kept under suspended animation for one month and leading to the saffron party withdrawing support to the Kumaraswamy government.

Both the coalition partners did a turn around when the JD(S) agreed to lend ''unconditional support'' to Mr Yeddyurappa's candidature on October 27. After continous follow up with the Governor, Prime Minister and the President, the Union Cabinet revoked the suspension of the state assembly on November 8, paving the way for the takeover by a BJP-led government in the state.

The party which was part of the Janata Party in 1977 had a thin base in Karnataka with its parent party and Janata Dal holding the sway on the people and the power till it fell apart six years ago.

The party got 18 MPs elected from the state in the 2004 general elections mainly riding on the development agenda of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government.

Mr Yeddyurappa is credited with the growth of the BJP from a mere four MLAs in 1984 to its present strength and held the office of Deputy Chief Minister along with Finance in the previous JD(S)-led government.

BJP President Rajnath Singh believes that stability will come naturally to the coalition when it is led by a person having ''mass support'' and has expressed confidence that the government would complete its tenure of 19 months.

''The party is confident that Mr Yeddyurappa will be the first servant of people and work for their welfare,'' he said.

UNI