After a fractured mandate, political parties must strive to build coalitions and form a government. An undecided Karnataka threw up no single party that has a majority. The precedent that’s been set by the Supreme Court is that the Governor invites the largest pre-poll alliance, then the single-largest parties. In 2015, hearing a public interest litigation, the then Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy had expressed their inability to step-in an act against two political parties that chose to form a post-poll alliance. Justice Roy observed that a promise made by a political party was not a promise enforceable by law.

Source: dna May 15, 2018 14:27 UTC