Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yeddyurappa took oath as Karnataka's chief minister on May 17 after the Supreme Court paved the way for his swearing-in in a rare overnight hearing. After the results of the May 12 assembly elections threw up a hung assembly, both the BJP and the Congress-JD(S) combine had separately met the governor Vajubhai Vala and staked claim to form the next government. The governor, on Wednesday night, invited Yeddyurappa as leader of the single largest party, a move that was decried by the Congress which immediately approached the apex court to stall the oath taking ceremony. After a nearly three-and-a-half hour hearing, a three-judge bench refused to stay Yeddyurappa's swearing-in. The court, however, said the swearing-in was subject to the final outcome of the matter before it and posted the case for further hearing at 10.30 a.m. on May 18.