Opposition’s show of strength expected at Kumaraswamy's oath ceremony

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy's oath taking ceremony to be held on Wednesday at the sprawling Kanteerava stadium on Monday will serve as the stepping stone for the grand alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Talks of a "mahaghatbandan" have already begun with both the Congress and JD(S) moving their MLAs to TRS-ruled Hyderabad amid fears of horse-trading. The rise of JD(S) in Karnataka also means a bigger role by the regional parties in the national arena during parliamentary elections in 2019.

Reflection of this is the invitation extended to leaders of regional parties to attend the swearing-in of the JDS-Congress coalition government in Karnataka on May 21.

Sources have said that BSP leader Mayawati, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, NCP President Sharad Pawar, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, DMK President MK Stalin, and Rashtriaya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh will be present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Earlier on Saturday, Left parties and the Trinamool Congreess termed the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa without facing a trust vote a "victory of secular democratic forces".

Left parties and the Trinamool Congreess termed the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa without facing a trust vote a "victory of secular demo "It's a victory of secular democratic forces.

The BJP never had the numbers, but the governor invited them to form government. The party was given time for horse-trading. Karnataka showed that the BJP's downslide has started," CPI leader D Raja told PTI.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has termed the collapse of the three-day-old B S Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka a "victory of the people's mandate" and asked the central government to resign on moral grounds.

"Today, the people's mandate has prevailed over money power," Yadav wrote on Twitter in Hindi. "Those who thought they could buy everyone have learnt the lesson that there are still people left who don't consider politics a business," he tweeted. "The central government should also resign on moral grounds," he added.

"This is a big blow for them(BJP) and I think what they had been planning all along for 2019 has failed, they will now have to rethink and alter their strategies," Mayawati on BS Yeddyurappa's resignation as Karnataka CM.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu waged a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on Karnataka politics.

He described the resignation of BS Yeddurappa as Chief Minister due to lack of sufficient strength in the Assembly as victory of Democracy.

Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to strike at the BJP and said, " Democracy wins. Congratulations Karnataka. Congratualtions Deve Gowda Ji, Kumaraswamy Ji, Congress and others. Victory of the 'regional' front." Mamata Banerjee has also said that she would attend the swearing-in ceremony.

The leader of CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury said, "The corrupt and criminal designs of the BJP have been defeated.This shows the Governor's decision to invite the BJP to form a government was malafide and against his constitutional mandate. If the Governor of Karnataka has any shame left, he should submit his resignation as well. The Union Ministers sitting in Bangalore, facilitating and enabling corrupt deals, are equally culpable.This goes well beyond Karnataka," he said.

BJP government in Karnataka collapsed today, minutes before the scheduled trust vote, with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa resigning in a tame anticlimax to what promised to be on the edge of seat political thriller.