Yeddyurappa awaits meeting with Gadkari, party decision

NEW DELHI/BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, battling allegations of favouring his close relatives with prime land, waited Tuesday to meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari for a decision on his fate.

On the second day of his stay in the national capital, Yeddyurappa met senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu and said later that he will abide by the partys decision.

I have worked hard to build the party. There is no question of not obeying the partys decision, the chief minister told reporters.

Naidu said the party leaders were still studying documents given by Yeddyurappa on land deals during the previous Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rule. We will take a decision and Yeddyurappa will abide by it, Naidu added.

Gadkari has been authorised by senior party leaders to take a final call on whether to allow Yeddyurappa to continue or ask him to quit.

The chief minister has ordered a probe into land scams since 1995, but the Janata Dal-Secular, which has been releasing documents alleging illegal land deals by him, said in Bangalore that it will boycott the enquiry.

JD-S leader H.D. Revanna, son of former prime minister and JD-S chief H.D. Deve Gowda, said the probe cannot bring out the truth”.

The probe will not serve any purpose and the JD-S will boycott it”, he told reporters.

Yeddyurappa announced Monday that retired Karnataka High Court judge B. Padmaraj will enquire into residential plot allotment by the Bangalore Development Authority and denotification of land by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board and other agencies since 1995 to the present day.

Meanwhile, Lingayat community leaders in the Congress Tuesday criticised the heads of the Lingayat community mutts (religious institutions) for coming out in support of Yeddyurappa as chief minister.

It is a disgrace for the entire Lingayat community if religious institutions’ heads start indulging in politics to defend a corrupt chief minister and other politicians on the basis of community, they told a press conference in Bangalore.

The press meet was addressed by M.P. Prakash, a former minister, Veeranna Mattikatti, former chairman of the legislative council, Rani Satish, former head of state Congress womens cell, and legislator Amaregowda Bayyapura.

Yeddyurappa is a Lingayat and a frequent visitor to these mutts as well as various temples.