NEW DELHI – Indian PM Narendra Modi is running out of options in the fullglare of the Supreme Court and facing inevitable defeat in the event of atrust vote to test his two-day-old BJP government, Karnataka’s new ChiefMinister B S Yeddyurappa threw in the towel and announced his decision toresign without putting the confidence motion to vote in the KarnatakaAssembly on Saturday afternoon.

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Yeddyurappa later submitted his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Valapaving the way for the Governor to call a JD(S)-Congress coalition led byformer Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to form the new government inKarnataka. Kumaraswamy said that he will take oath as CM on Monday, May 21,after he is called to form the new government by the Governor.

Yeddyurappa, 75, announced his decision to quit after an emotional speechin the Assembly where he promised to work for farmers in the state untilhis last breath. “The twisted politics of the Congress has thwarted themandate from the election. I will not take the confidence motion forward. Iwill be going to the Governor to submit my resignation,” the three-timeChief Minister said at the end of his address to the Assembly.

This was the shortest tenure for Yeddyurappa who was CM for seven days in2007 when he resigned ahead of a trust vote after the collapse of aBJP-JD(S) alliance to govern the state.

Despite the anticipation of drama in the run-up to the trust vote — its dayand time fixed by the Supreme Court on Friday — for the Yeddyurappagovernment, it was fairly clear — when the Assembly convened — that theCongress-JDS combine had managed to hold on to its legislators amid thethreat of poaching by the BJP