Ahead of swearing-in BSY visit National Military Memorial

Bengaluru: Ahead of taking oath as the 25th Chief Minister of the state, BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa on Friday will be payng tributes at the National Military Memorial here.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday he said, “On this day 20 years ago, Indian armed forces defeated Pakistan in 1999 in the Kargil war. As a mark of respect to all soldiers who fought this great war, I have come here to pay my tribute to our armed forces before taking oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.”

Earlier in the day, Yeddyurappa met Governor Vajubhai Vala to stake claim to form the government in the state, three days after the 14-month old Congress-JD (S) coalition government fell after losing the trust vote in the Assembly.

Yeddyurappa for the last couple of days had been waiting for instructions from the party high command to stake claim to form the government after the Congress-JDS coalition government had collapsed after the floor test on Tuesday.

A group of Karnataka BJP leaders, including Jagdish Shettar, Arvind Limbavali, J C Madhuswamy, Basavaraj Bommai and Yeddyurappa’s son Vijayendra Thursday had met party chief Amit Shah in New Delhi and reportedly discussed the government formation.

Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Thursday had disqualified three rebel Congress MLAs under the anti-defection law.

The 14-month-old Congress-JDS coalition government headed by Kumaraswamy collapsed on Tuesday after losing the vote of confidence in the Assembly in a climax to the three-week long intense power struggle.