JOIN USChief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has had a chequered history when in power. Saturday’s floor test will be his fifth in a span of 11 years.
“We will get full majority. We will prove majority. I’m 100% confident,” Yeddyurappa said on Friday, soon after the Supreme Court ordered him to undergo a floor test to show that the BJP had sufficient numbers to form government. The BJP, with 104 legislators, must have 112 to form government.
Yeddyurappa’s first floor test was in November 2007 when his eight-day-old government collapsed after its alliance partner JD(S) refused support. About six months later, the BJP returned to power and Yeddyurappa became chief minister, making it first-ever BJP government in the south.
In June 2008, soon after the government was sworn-in, the then Governor Rameshwar Thakur ordered a floor test as the BJP was short by three legislators. Thanks to the infamous Operation Kamala, Yeddyurappa passed his second floor test.
His third floor test came two years later, on October 11, 2010, when senior Congress leader H R Bhardwaj was governor. The trigger for Bhardwaj to order the test was that 18 MLAs had withdrawn their support. The then Speaker K G Bopaiah, who has been appointed as Pro tem Speaker ahead of Saturday’s floor test, disqualified 16 of the MLAs - 11 from BJP and five independents. Yeddyurappa won the trust motion by a voice vote, which Bhardwaj rejected and the Opposition questioned.
Bhardwaj recommended President’s rule, while giving Yeddyurappa another chance to prove his floor strength on October 14, 2010. Bhardwaj recommended President’s rule again in May 2011 after the Supreme Court set aside the disqualification of the
16 MLAs.
In October 2011, Yeddyurappa was remanded in judicial custody on charges of corruption and was released from prison after spending more than 20 days there. The Karnataka High Court set aside his conviction in 2015.