Even as Karnataka governor H R Bhardwaj is studying a petition seeking prosecution sanction against chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and home minister R Ashok for alleged involvement in land scams, the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is worried over the repeated allegations on the state government and the message it is sending across to people.
Soon after a meeting between central party leader Arun Jaitley and Yeddyurappa here, the BJP decided that all its Members of Parliament (MPs) from Karnataka, with central leaders, would meet President Pratibha Patil on January 24 to complain against the governor.
In a hurriedly called meeting between Yeddyurappa, Ashok and central leaders in Delhi, the Karnataka chief minister explained his stand that the basic problem was Bhardwaj’s bias against the state government. Yeddyurappa also had a detailed telephonic conversation with national party head, Nitin Gadkari, who is not in Delhi. Gadkari is leaving for China on a five-day visit on Thursday night.
Although Yeddyurappa managed to win substantial share of seats in the recent panchayat and taluk elections, the central leaders of BJP believes that it’s not enough because repeated allegations of corruption are sending a wrong message to the people of the state.
Senior leaders of the BJP said the party was taking a close look at the developments in the Karnataka because the party image was at stake. It is the BJP government in any of the southern states.
“The governor is deliberately creating mischief for the state government. He cannot act against the government because no government authority has found anything against the chief minister. The governor has been creating problems for the state government from the first day he came to Karnataka. If there is a need, we can even go to the High Court and Supreme Court against the biased actions of the governor,” said K S Eshwarappa, the state BJP president.
“The charges of corruption are not by any government authority so the governor cannot give prosecution sanction against the chief minister or any other minister. There is no threat to the state government. The actions of the governor are biased,” said a senior cabinet minister.
