An upbeat B.S. Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s Chief Ministerial nominee, would call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday and invite them to the swearing-in ceremony of the party’s new government in Karnataka, said an official on Tuesday.

“Yeddyurappa will leave for Delhi Tuesday night or Wednesday morning to meet Modi and Shah for inviting them to the swearing-in later this week,” state party spokesman S. Shantaram told IANS.

Besides Modi and Shah, many Central ministers, Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states and party’s national leaders will be invited to attend the event, which will mark the return of the national party to Karnataka after five years.

“Our national and party leaders will decide on the date and time of Yeddyurappa’s oath-taking as the next Chief Minister in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Office and Shah’s office,” said Shantaram.

As the Raj Bhavan in the city centre is too small to accommodate so many VIPs, leaders from the state and thousands of cadres, the ceremony is likely to take place in front of the state’s legislative building (Vidhan Soudha) or at the Kanteerava sports stadium.

“Yeddyurappa and the party’s state unit will decide who and how many legislators will take oath as Cabinet ministers along with him in consultation with our party’s national leaders,” added Shantaram.

Yeddyurappa, who won from Shikaripura Assembly segment in Shivamogga district, was the party’s maiden Chief Minister in south India when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power for the first time in May 2008.

The 75-year-old strong Lingayat leader is currently the Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga constituency in the state’s Malnad region, about 300km from Bengaluru.

Though Yeddyurappa brought the party to power and made the party’s lotus symbol bloom in the south of Vindhyas, he was forced to step down in July 2011 after the state’s anti-graft watchdog (Lokayuktha) indicted him in a multi-crore mining scam that rocked Karnataka.

The Congress on Tuesday said it had offered its backing to the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to form a government in Karnataka following a hung Assembly.

Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party had preliminary telephonic talk with both JD-S chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his son and former Chief Minister. H.D. Kumaraswamy over government formation.

“They have accepted the offer,” Azad said in the company of outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Assembly election took place on Saturday and the Bharatiya Janata Party finished as the single largest group in the 224-seat house. Two constituencies did not vote.

“We will meet the Governor and stake claim for government formation… Our numbers put together will be more than the BJP’s,” Azad said.

Congress candidate from Mangaluru North constituency Moideen Bawa has raised suspicions of EVM malfunctioning and has said that he would take up the matter with the Election Commission.

Bawa who is trailing to BJP’s Dr Bharath Shetty by over 28,900 votes, while speaking to media persons said, “I have been working for the development of this constituency for last five years. It is suprising that BJP candidate Dr Bharat, whose name had been announced only some time back has gained such a huge margin. I suspect EVM malfunction and will raise the matter with the Election Commission.”

Meanwhile, Congress leaders JR Lobo of Mangaluru South and Ramanath Rai of Bantwal constituency too were seen leaving the venue early in light of the impeding defeat.

DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Tuesday congratulated BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa for his party’s victory in the Karnataka Assembly election.

In a tweet, Stalin also told the new government in Karnataka to release the Cauvery water due to Tamil Nadu without defying the Supreme Court verdict on the river row.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former chief minister of Karnataka Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday scoffed away the possibilities of allying with the JD(S) and expressed confidence of his party forming an independent government in the state.

“There is no question of alliance (with JDS) as we are already crossing 112 seats,” claimed Gowda.

The latest trends in the counting of votes show the BJP is leading in the race to the Karnataka State Assembly, having claimed 101 seats, while the Congress trails with just 46 seats won, 38 seats going to the JDS and three seats being claimed by other parties.

Counting of votes began at 8 am for 222 out of 224 assembly constituencies in 58,546 polling stations in the state. The elections in two constituencies, Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, both in Bengaluru, had been postponed earlier.

A total of 2,654 candidates, including 216 women candidates were in the fray for the Assembly Elections this year. The BJP fielded 223 candidates, while the Congress and the JDS fielded 222 and 201 candidates respectively.

Out of the 224 seats, 36 of them are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), while 15 of them are for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

It may be noted that a party or an alliance needs 112 seats to form the government.

Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday got partial relief in the solar scam scam case as the High Court said allegations of sexual exploitation against him need not be taken into account.

The court’s direction came while hearing Chandy’s petition over the solar scam Commission report. It said findings of the commission based on the letter of accused Saritha Nair which alleges sexual exploitation need not be considered.

However, the court failed to stay the ongoing probe based on the Commission report, which was also another demand of Chandy.

Chandy, approached the court demanding the one member Justice (retired) Sivarajan Commission be stayed as it had gone beyond its brief, and the letter of Saritha was never part of the Commission’s terms of reference. Hence, the probe that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan ordered based on the letter should not take place.

The multi-crore solar energy investment fraud that rocked the Chandy government in 2013 was led by Saritha Nair and her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan, as it came to light that a section of the Chief Minister’s office had links with the couple.

The sleaze letter written by Nair when she was in jail names Chandy and numerous other top Congress leaders of sexually exploiting her.

Following the huge public outcry led by the then Left opposition, Chandy in 2014 announced that the Sivarajan Commission will probe the case.

With the change of government in 2016, the report was submitted last year to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Last year, on October 11, Vijayan told the media the judicial report had been accepted, adding that cases would be registered against Chandy and others based on Nair’s letter that claimed she was sexually exploited.

Later, the former Kerala Chief Minister approached the high court and brought in senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal as his counsel.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the manner in which Vijayan tried to finish off political rivals based on a ‘letter’ has fallen flat and the very basis of the Commission report also has lost its credibility.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Congress would have done much better in the Karnataka Assembly election if it had allied with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

Banerjee did not name the BJP but congratulated the “winners”.

“Congratulations to the winners of the Karnataka elections. For those who lost, fight back. If Congress had gone into an alliance with the JD-S, the result would have been different. Very different,” she tweeted.