Anil Kumble with wife Chetana during the oath-taking ceremony in Bangalore. (PTI)

Bangalore, Nov. 12: The BJP forming its first government in the land of dosas was historic enough but Narendra Modi decided to add a little masala.

“Karnataka will follow the Gujarat model,” Modi said on the sidelines of the ceremony where B.S. Yeddyurappa was sworn in chief minister.

The remark immediately created a buzz, with many interpreting it to mean that the Karnataka government would follow an aggressive Hindutva agenda.

It was left to BJP president Rajnath Singh to sort out dhokla from idli. “He only meant that the Gujarat model of development would be followed…. Gujarat today is an example for other states to follow,” Rajnath said.

Yeddyurappa did not comment on Modi’s statement but stressed that development would be his priority. “There will be no discrimination against minorities,” he said in a message expected to satisfy alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular).

Most JD(S) leaders, including party chief H.D. Deve Gowda, skipped the function but the previous chief minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, and a handful of MLAs decided to come. Party sources later said Gowda was unwell.

“I assure you that our coalition government will complete the 19 months (till the next election),” Yeddyurappa, who has the support of 129 MLAs including 49 from the JD(S), told a questioner.

“The initiative to form the government, after we withdrew support, came from the JD(S). So we have no doubt about its stability,” Rajnath added.

Questions, however, were raised why no JD(S) leader figured among the four cabinet ministers who took oath along with Yeddyurappa. Rajnath said the rest of the ministers — from the JD(S) and the BJP — would be inducted at one go after Yeddyurappa passes a floor test, for which he has requested the governor to convene a special Assembly session on November 23.

Senior BJP leaders such as L.K. Advani, Yashwant Sinha and Murli Manohar Joshi attended the event at the imposing Vidhana Soudha (secretariat) that echoed with the unfamiliar slogan of “Bharatmata ki jai.”

BJP chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh came from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to attend the ceremony but Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan did not. Her critic and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, in the news after being booked on the charge of serving opium at a party, also stayed away.

New Indian Test captain Anil Kumble and his wife Chetana were present.

Yeddyurappa becomes the state’s 25th chief minister, assuming office along with Jagadish Shettar, V.S. Acharya, Govind Karajol and R. Ashok, all of whom had been ministers also in the previous government.

A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member, Yeddyurappa led many mass movements in the state and was elected five times from the Shikaripura Assembly constituency in Shimoga.

The man from a farming family had twice been the party’s state president in the nineties and played a key role in building the BJP’s grassroots support base.

In one respect, his situation is similar to the one Modi faced in 2001, when he was sworn in Gujarat chief minister with just 12 months left for the Assembly polls. Modi rode the communal riots of February-March 2002 to ride back to power with a huge majority.