Convene House quickly as delay will allow horse-trading: Santosh Hegde to Karnataka Governor

Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala should convene the Assembly quickly to settle the issue of majority as any delay would give elbow room for political parties to indulge in horse-trading, retired Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde said on Wednesday.

"No party has got any majority and the happenings thereafter... I am not very happy because many unconstitutional methods are being tried to cobble up majority," the former Solicitor General of India told PTI.

"So, sooner the Governor calls the House and call upon the people to prove the majority, better it is," the former Karnataka Lokayukta said.

"Calling (B S) Yeddyurappa, you have an example of ... find basis from S R Bommai case where the Supreme Court has held the vote of confidence should be held only on the floor of Legislative Assembly and not outside, and single largest party should be called upon to prove majority," he said.

But there are examples like in Goa and Manipur, where "it's been the other way round" -- the party which was supposed to have majority (not the single largest party) was called upon to prove majority," Hegde added.

"So, the Governor has lot of elbow room to manage it. But the consequences are very very sad that they (political parties) may stoop to any level to cobble up majority. And you (parties) speak about political morality and other things? It's a sad for the State, I can say that much," he said.

"The Governor should not keep this (on the issue of proving who has majority) pending so that there will not be elbow room for parties to (indulge in) horse-trading or call it by another name; it's not proper thing to happen," added Hegde, a former Advocate General of Karnataka.

With the Karnataka assembly polls throwing up a hung verdict, the BJP with 104 seats has fallen short of the half-way mark of 112.

The Congress-JD(S) combine moved quickly even as the counting of votes was underway yesterday and requested the governor to allow formation of a JD(S)-led government. The two parties together have a clear majority in the 224-member Assembly.

Elections were held for 222 seats on May 12 while polling for the remaining two will be held later.

PTI