Bengaluru, May 23 : Unfazed by the fall of its 3-day government last week in Karnataka, a defiant BJP's state unit will protest across the state on Wednesday against the formation of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition government, said a party official on Tuesday.

"As the Congress-JD-S alliance hijacked the people's mandate and formed an unholy alliance to form a coalition government on Wednesday, we are observing the occasion as the 'anti-people's mandate day' across the state," said BJP's spokesman S. Shantaram in a statement here.

State Governor Vajubhai Vala invited JD-S legislative party leader H.D. Kumaraswamy to take oath as the 25th Chief Minister on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. on the grand steps of the state secretariat (Vidhana Soudha) in the presence of national and regional leaders and about an estimated 1 lakh people.

"Thousands of our party cadres and functionaries will stage a black flag demo at cities and districts to draw the people's attention to the opportunistic alliance of the duo to keep the BJP out of power," Shantaram noted.

Party's state unit President and its three-time Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will lead the demo at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the city centre at 11:15 a.m. ahead of the oath-taking ceremony in the evening.

Party's state unit general secretaries Shobha Karandlaje, Arvind Limbavali R. Ashok and N. Ravi Kumar, Lok Sabha member from Bengaluru Central P.C. Mohan will be present on the occasion. 

"We have also decided to boycott the swearing-in of Kumaraswamy and Congress state unit President G. Parameshwara as Deputy Chief Minister as they don't have the mandate or moral ground to form the government," another party official told IANS here.

In the May 12 election, voters gave a hung assembly in 222 constituencies, with 37 for the JD-S, including one from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 78 for the Congress and 104 for the BJP, which fell seven less than the 111-halfway mark for a simple majority and passing the floor test.

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Chennai (PTI): Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer was fined Rs 24 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his team’s IPL 2026 match against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.

The last season's runners-up PBKS secured their second sucessive win, defeating five-time champions Chennai Super Kings by five wickets here on Friday.

As this was Punjab Kings’ second offence of the season under Article 2.22 of the IPL Code of Conduct, which relates to minimum over-rate violations, the penalty was enhanced and Iyer was fined Rs 24 lakh, said the IPL media advisory.

"The rest of the members of the Playing XI, including the Impact Player, will be fined either INR six lakhs or 25 per cent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser," it added.