BS Yediyurappa takes oath as Karnataka Chief Minister for fourth time, spells name differently

Before taking the oath, he changed the spelling of his surname to "Yediyurappa".

The oath-taking ceremony took place amid loud cheers three days after the 14-month-old Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition failed to prove its majority in the floor test at the Karnataka Assembly.

The challenge is not yet over for Yediyurappa as well as he needs to prove the majority of his government before the house by July 31.

The BJP has staked claim to form the government in the southern state with the support of 106 lawmakers, which is six short of the majority mark at 112.

However, Yediyurappa said that he is "101 per cent" confident of winning the same.

"The difference between the BJP government and the coalition government is that we work for the development... Forget and forgive is our mantra," Yediyurappa told the media after taking oath.

The Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) government failed to win the trust vote in the Vadhan Soudhaon Tuesday, getting only 99 votes as opposed to BJP's 105.

The trust vote was called by JDS leader and the then Karnataka Chief Minister, HD Kumaraswamy, amid the political turmoil over several Congress-JDS MLAs' resignations.

Meanwhile, fresh trouble emerged for BJP after Ramesh Kumar, the Speaker of the Assembly, disqualified three of 17 rebel MLAs on Thursday night.

Substituting the three disqualified MLAs, the House strength falls to 222 from the original 225. 

Yediyurappa, who already served as CM thrice, has never been able to complete a term. His first term lasted one week and the second term, three years. The third stint was just for 48 hours when the Congress-JDS staked claim to form the government last year.

Image credit: UNI