Seeking adoption of the Karnataka example in Bihar, Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya, the Opposition parties have sought time from their respective State Governors to stake claim to form a Government in their respective States where they had emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly polls held last year.
Goa Congress legislative Party chief Chandrakant Kavlekar said the party will stake claim on Friday by
submitting to Governor Mridula Sinha a formal letter containing signatures of all the 16 party MlAs.
RJD leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswhi Yadav too has decided to seek time from the Governor to stake claim to form a Government.
Former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and former Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma too have sought time from their respective Governors for a meeting on Friday to stake claim to form a Government on the Karnataka lines.
AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said if allowing the single largest party is the law, then the BJP Governments in Goa, Manipur and Bihar should resign and the Congress should be allowed to form a Government.
In Goa Assembly elections held in March last year, the Congress had bagged 17 seats in the 40-member House, falling short of four seats for the majority. The BJP, which got 14 seats, formed the Government in alliance with the Goa Forward Party and the MGP, both of which had secured three seats each. Three Independents too went with the BJP.
Kavlekar said the Goa Governor should follow the precedent set by her Karnataka counterpart and invite the single largest party to form a Government “correcting her mistake of March 12, 2017”.
“We have 16 legislators with us and with that strength we are the single largest party in the (Goa) Assembly. The Governor should invite us to form a Government in Goa as per the precedent set by her Karnataka counterpart,” said Kavlekar.
When pointed out that the Congress needs support of at least 21 legislators to stake the claim, he said that once the Governor swears in the Congress Chief Minister, he will be able to prove his majority on the floor of the Goa Assembly.
“The numbers will have to be proven on the floor of the House and we have that with us,” he said. Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said that the Governors can’t have two different set of rules.
The Congress is giving an “opportunity to the Goa Governor to rectify the mistake which she did last year”, Chodankar said.
The BJP-led Government in Goa is headed by Manohar Parrikar, who is currently undergoing treatment in the US for his pancreatic ailment.
Tejashwi said his party will also request Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik to invite the RJD, the single largest party in the State. The JD (U)-BJP alliance together with other allies have 131 seats in the 243-member Assembly. However, the RJD is still the single largest party with 80 MlAs. Yadav said if the BJP was invited by the Karnataka Governor to form the Government on the ground that it was the single largest party, and then the RJD also had the right to form the Government.
“We will request the Bihar Governor to dismiss the State Government and invite the RJD to form the Government,” he said. “I will meet the Governor along with our MlAs as we are the single largest party in Bihar,” tweeted Yadav.
Also joining the Opposition bandwagon, disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha questioned the party’s decision to form a Government in Karnataka without required majority and said politics of “dhan-shakti over jan-shakti” was neither acceptable nor desirable.
Former Manipur Chief Minister and Congress leader Ibobi Singh also said he will seek an appointment with the Governor for staking claim to form a Government. In Manipur poll held last year, the Congress had won 28 seats in the 60-member House and the BJP 21. The BJP joined hands with regional parties to claim support of majority of MlAs and Governor Najma Heptulla invited it to form the Government, ignoring the claim of the Congress.
In the March 2017 Assembly elections in Manipur, the BJP, with 21 seats, came second to then ruling Congress, which bagged 28 - three short of the majority mark to form Government. In spite of coming second in the electoral race, the BJP famously formed the Government with support from its regional allies, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the National People’s Party (NPP).