ISAS Briefs

Almost 10 days after a hung verdict in the Karnataka Assembly elections in India, a Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] coalition won a vote of confidence on the floor of the House on 25 May 2018. In the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 104 seats, but fell short of a majority by eight seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. Both the BJP and the second-placed Congress, which teamed up with JD(S), a regional party, staked a claim to form the government. This was followed by a dramatic sequence of events which included the swearing in of the BJP’s leader, B S Yeddyurappa, as chief minister, the Supreme Court’s intervention in bringing forward the date of the trust vote, Yeddyurappa’s resignation and the eventual appointment of JD(S) president, H D Kumaraswamy, as chief minister