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| Yeddyurappa |
New Delhi/ Bangalore, July 23: The BJP today signalled full support to B.S. Yeddyurappa, prompting the Karnataka chief minister to drop his plans of coming to Delhi and instead head straight to Bangalore tomorrow from Mauritius where he is holidaying.
Yeddyurappa is likely to hold a news conference on Monday to clarify his position on Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s soon-to-be-released report on illegal mining that indicts the chief minister and four of his cabinet colleagues, sources said.
He was earlier scheduled to dash to Delhi to hold discussions with the party’s core group, the sources said.
But he changed his plans after the BJP’s top leadership discussed the issue informally today and signalled the party would back Yeddyurappa completely and, if necessary, sacrifice its government but not dump the chief minister.
The BJP was left with little choice after Yeddyurappa refused to resign, the sources said, because it could not find anyone to replace the “popular” leader.
Party leaders here, however, claimed Yeddyurappa changed his plans on the advice of central leaders who felt his Delhi visit would generate media hype and accentuate the demands for his resignation.
“The report has not yet been submitted. Let the report come and then we will take a call whether the chief minister was needed in Delhi,” a senior party leader said.
Senior BJP leaders, who are lining up arguments in Yeddyurappa’s defence, said the validity of the Lokayukta’s report was questionable. They claimed Hegde’s report was a preliminary one.
“The Lokayukta rule has it that after a preliminary inquiry, a full-fledged investigation is undertaken and a notice is served to the chief minister to explain his position. In this case, no notice has been served to Yeddyurappa and thereby we believe it is a preliminary report,” a senior leader said. The leader also claimed that no mining leases were given out during Yeddyurappa’s regime.
The chief minister is expected to use these arguments during his news conference in Bangalore on Monday.
If even after this the situation becomes untenable, the party would rather face mid-term elections than opt for a change of leadership, the sources said.
All these steps are, however, the result of the BJP’s helplessness in dealing with Yeddyurappa, the sources said. Most BJP leaders feel they will no longer be in a position to raise a furore over the government’s corruption during the monsoon session of Parliament.
Phone tapping
Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy today said his phone was tapped for more than year and blamed the state intelligence, which is under the chief minister.
This comes three days after Lokayukta Hegde said he had to change his number because his phone was tapped. Kumaraswamy, who is also indicted in the leaked portions of the Lokayukta’s second and final report on illegal mining, said he was ignorant of the bugging until very recently and would take up the matter with the government.
“I don’t understand why my phone was tapped. While it is okay to tap phones during situations like a national emergency, it’s just not done to eavesdrop on people considered the adversaries of the ruling party,” he said without naming any suspects.
An arch rival of the chief minister, Kumaraswamy did not link the tapping to the illegal mining but blame the state intelligence.
In response to Hegde’s allegations, the Karnataka government denied tapping the Lokayukta’s phone. State chief secretary S.V. Ranganath said the government had not authorised any such action. Hegde had hinted at the possibility of “a political party” being behind the incident that came to light when he hired a professional to check if his lines were bugged.
Intensifying its protests, the state Congress said it would not rest till Yeddyurappa quits. “We cannot tolerate a corrupt chief minister,” said senior Congress leader R.V. Deshpande, addressing a protest meeting.
But state BJP chief K.S. Easwarappa said: “Whatever happens, there’s no question of the chief minister resigning.”
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