Bhardwaj should not be governor anywhere: BJP
By IANSTuesday, December 21, 2010
BANGALORE - The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Tuesday threatened to launch an agitation not only for the removal of Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj but also to prevent him being named governor in any state.
“Our demand is that Bhardwaj should not be made governor of any state,” BJP Lok Sabha member D.B. Chandre Gowda, who was earlier in the Congress, told reporters here.
Gowda objected to Bhardwaj going public that he was not happy with Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s reply to his letters on land scandals and illegal iron ore mining.
“How right is it for the governor to talk like that when local elections (to taluka [sub-district] and zilla [district] panchayats on Dec 26 and Dec 31) are due. The poll code applies to the governor also,” Gowda, who was a minister in previous Congress governments in the state, said.
He joined BJP ahead of the 2008 assembly polls in Karnataka and won the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
State BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa also continued his attack on Bhardwaj.
He had said Sunday that Bhardwaj should resign and contest the upcoming local polls in the state on Congress or JDS ticket.
Tuesday he told reporters in Ramanagaram, about 40 km from Bangalore, that the governor was ‘blackmailing’ Yeddyurappa by going public about his correspondence with the chief minister.
Bhardwaj had been demanding that Yeddyurappa give the “true picture” of the land deal allegations against him and also the action taken against the Reddy brothers accused of illegal iron ore mining.
Bhardwaj told reporters Monday that Yeddyurappa’s reply was not satisfactory and that he intends to write one more letter to the chief minister on the two issues.
Yeddyurappa Tuesday declined to comment on Bhardwaj’s statements.
“I have great regard for the governor and Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) and I will not comment on their statements,” he said.
The Lok Ayukta, N. Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, is also unhappy with Yeddyurappa for ordering a judicial probe into land deals when he was already investigating some of them.
