Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj on Wednesday alleged that vested interests facing court cases and Lokayukta investigations were pressurising Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda to stick to the choice of former Kerala Chief Justice S R Bannurmath as new Lokayukta. “I have already dealt with these people. They are out of power, but wield enormous political power. They are the ones who are persuading the chief minister to stick to a choice of one person,” he told reporters on the sidelines of Voters Day celebrations here.
The Governor said the pressure obviously was on the government and he was aware of the persons pressurising the Chief Minister. “Therefore this pressure does not work on me... It works on the poor Chief Minister,” he added.
Denying reports of a face-off between him and the government over the appointment of Lokayukta, he said the fight is prevalent in the ruling BJP government. Reiterating his stand, the Governor said he has already communicated his rejection of Bannurmath as Lokayukta to the government.
“When I decide..I decide..I don’t change my decision. I have rejected Bannurmath’s name,” Bhardwaj said, a day after Sadananda Gowda contradicted his claim on ending the Lokayukta impasse soon, saying he had not received any official reply from him to any letters on appointing Bannurmath for the post.
Gowda had said there was no need for discussing the issue with the Governor as he had not replied to his letters. His comments came two days after Bhardwaj’s claim that the Chief Minister had promised to come up with another name after consulting his party leaders.
Bhardwaj had also claimed that things had started “moving in the right direction” and he expected the matter to be resolved in seven to ten days.
