New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday justified his party forming government in Karnataka with B.S. Yeddyurappa taking oath as Chief Minister and hit out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for terming the political developments as "mockery of Constitution".
"The murder of democracy happened the minute a desperate Congress made an ‘opportunist' offer to the Janata Dal-Secular, not for Karnataka's welfare but for their petty political gains. Shameful!," Shah said in a series of tweets.
He said the people's mandate in Karnataka was in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party as the Congress was reduced to 78 from 122 and the saffron party surged from 40 to 104.
"Who has the people's mandate in Karnataka? The BJP, which has won 104 seats. Or, Congress which dropped to 78 seats, whose own Chief Minister and ministers lost by big margins. JD-S who won only 37 seats and lost their deposits on several others," he said.
Slamming the Congress for questioning Governor Vajubhai Vala's decision to call BJP to form the government, he reminded that it was the grand old party which imposed Emergency and misused Article 356.
"President of the Congress obviously does not remember the glorious history of his party. The legacy of Rahul Gandhi's party is the horrific emergency, blatant misuse of Article 356, subverting the courts, media and civil society," he said.
Shah's attack comes soon after Rahul Gandhi termed the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa as 'mockery' of Constitution.
"The BJP's irrational insistence that it will form a government in Karnataka, even though it clearly does not have the numbers, is to make a mockery of our Constitution," Gandhi said.
"This morning, while the BJP celebrates its hollow victory, India will mourn the defeat of democracy," he added.
Governor Vala administered the oath of office and secrecy to Yeddyurappa at 9 a.m. at the Raj Bhavan amid tight security hours after the Supreme Court declined to stay his swearing-in ceremony.