President revokes Governor's rule in Karnataka

New Delhi, May 30 : President Pratibha Patil today signed a proclamation revoking Central rule in Karnataka. The move came on the day when a new BJP government led by B.S. Yeddyurappa is scheduled to take oath of office and secrecy in Bangalore.

Patil, who is at present on a holiday in Shimla, signed the proclamation and sent it to Union Home Ministry for it to issue the requisite orders. The Centre, in turn, will direct Governor Rameshwar Thakur about lifting President's rule in the state.

On May 28, the Union Cabinet decided to request the President to revoke Central rule in Karnataka, to pave the way for the formation of the new government.

The proclamation of imposing President's rule in Karnataka was issued on November 20, 2007. The Central rule, which was to expire on May 19 last, was extended by another six months by the Parliament.

Yeddyurappa's swearing-in ceremony will be held at 1.50 p.m. in the Vidhana Soudha. Governor Thakur will administer the oath of office and secrecy. A team of 15 to 20 members of the party is expected to take oath as Ministers along with Yeddyurappa, who will head the first-ever BJP Government in Karnataka.

Those expected to join the Yeddyurappa Ministry are Jagadish Shettar, K S Eshwarappa, Shobha Karandlaje, Govind Karjol, C M Udasi, B Sreeramulu, S A Ravindranath, Dr V S Acharya, Ramachandra Gowda, Shankaralinge Gowda, Ramdas, Lakshman Savadi, Vishwveshwara Hegde Kageri, R Ashok, S Suresh Kumar, Yogish Bhat and Krishnaiah Shetty.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj and others are expected to attend the ceremony.

The BJP, which won 110 seats out of 224 and fell short by three numbers for simple majority, claims to have the support of some independents.

Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party has elected Mallikarjuna Kharge the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, as leader of the Opposition.

ANI