In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress on Tuesday justified its claim to power in Karnataka using Arun Jaitley's old tweet.
After the Goa election in March last year, Jaitley had tweeted that in case of a hung assembly the governor is constitutionally right in inviting the leader of the majority coalition.
This has given ammunition to the opposition parties to attack BJP, which has staked claim to power in Karnataka as the party with the single largest majority.
Local media reported that the governor has given Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa a week's time to prove majority.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted, “BJP govt appointed governors didn’t invite single largest party in either Goa, 2017 (INC, 17 out of 40 seats), Manipur 2017 (INC 28 of 60) or Meghalaya 2018 (INC 21 out of 60). Union ministers gave arguments supporting them. The precedent is there to follow, right?”
He also attached a screenshot of Jaitley's tweet along with the comments.
"The country's law, the Constitution and the standards of morality are very clear that any coalition - even if it is post-poll coalition and if it has the full majority - then the governor has no other option but to invite that coalition to form the government," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.
The Congress and the JD-S on Tuesday staked claim to form the government after the Karnataka elections threw up a hung Assembly.
After meeting the governor, the Congress declared that it was giving unconditional support to the JD(S), which finished third in the race behind the BJP and the Congress.