Guv should facilitate JD(S)-Congress coalition'

A new round of drama is unfolding: It's the same tried and tested and of course, boring theme. No single political party obtains a majority, followed by a musical chair contest to form the Government.

In a situation where no political party obtains a majority on its own, the Governor is expected to call upon the single largest party to form the Government. Accordingly, he should be asking the BJP that won 103 seats to form a Government.

However, there is an exception to this Rule; when a party that scored lesser than the single largest party cobbles a majority through official and public support of other political parties or the independents and takes this arrangement to the Governor, he should allow this coalition to form a Government, instead.

If the BJP with less seats than the majority number did rush to the Governor and obtain an invitation from him to form the Government, the Governor is still free to revoke that invitation in favour of a coalition between the JDS and the Congress that cross the majority number - provided the coalition is officially put on paper and the heads of these two political parties provide proof of their agreement in writing to the Governor. If they instead, ask the Governor to put his faith in their words only, the Governor may send them away.

In a case where the Governor allows the BJP to form a Government and would reject a proposal by the JDS-Congress that could show majority numbers, the Governor becomes answerable to a Court on why he is facilitating horse trading by the BJP that is plainly opposed to public policy - as and when, somebody questions it in the Court immediately.

I have seen the letter by Kumaraswamy sent to the Governor seeking an appointment and I wouldn't blame the Governor if he didn't take that letter seriously, as it does not contain sufficient information to force a serious consideration by him. 

However, we all know that the Governor in question was a BJP politician in Gujarat and we shouldn't be surprised if he acts more like a BJP politician than a high authority that our Constitution expects of him.

In my view, all things considered, the Governor should be facilitating the JDS-Congress coalition to form the Government in view of the fact that they hold the majority - provided they reduce their agreement to support each other in writing and present their chiefs during a meeting with the Governor.

— The writer is a Supreme Court  advocate