Yeddyurappa not to seek stay of Bhardwaj’s order (Night Lead)

NEW DELHI/BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa Sunday said he will not move the high court seeking stay of Governor H. R Bhardwaj’s order sanctioning his prosecution over corruption charges as he came to the national capital to discuss his future course of action with senior party leaders.

“No, not going to approach high court,” he told reporters in New Delhi when asked whether he will petition the high court for stay of Bhardwaj’s sanction order.

“Private complaint has been lodged (against him in a Bangalore court). Let us see what will happen,” Yeddyurappa said after meeting party central leaders and consulting legal experts.

Bhardwaj granted sanction to two advocates late Friday to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa, brushing aside strong objection from the chief minister as well as his cabinet.

The advocates, Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj, Saturday filed two complaints in a Bangalore court and plan to file more Monday.

Yeddyurappa said a delegation of BJP central and state leaders and MPs from Karnataka will meet President Pratibha Patil Monday to apprise her of Bhardwaj’s conduct.

Yeddyurappa and BJP have accused Bhardwaj of working as “an agent of Congress and (Congress-led) United Progressive Alliance government.” The delegation is expected to urge Patil to immediately remove Bhardwaj as Karnataka governor.

Yeddyurappa also said he planned to meet union Home Minister P.Chidambaram to brief him about Bhardwaj’s conduct.

Yeddyurappa has accused Bhardwaj of not giving him an opportunity to present his case about the complaint by the two advocates.

He has also said Bhardwaj had first refused to give a copy of his sanction order and did so only when a group of ten ministers met him Saturday.

During his meeting with party central leaders in New Delhi, Yeddyurappa sought their advice on his course of action to face the prosecution case filed by the two lawyers.

Soon after reaching Delhi, Yeddyruppa was closeted with senior party leaders to discuss the political and legal strategies to face Bhardwaj’s action.

“I will strongly recommend to the party high command to seek the recall of the governor by the president for his attempt to destabilise a democratically elected government in the state,” Yeddyurappa told reporters in Bangalore before leaving for New Delhi.

The chief minister, who declined to quit Saturday, asserted that he would fight till the end to prove that he did not commit any offence and complete his five-year term.

In Bangalore, a senior official said that the chief minister flew to Delhi to apprise the party leadership on the political developments in the state following the Bhardwaj’s sanction for his prosecution and seek advice on the next course of action.

“The chief minister will decide in consultation with the party leadership whether to challenge the governor’s prosecution order in the Karnataka High Court on Monday for staying the proceedings in the special Lokyayukta (Ombudsman) court where two criminal cases were filed on Saturday by the two advocates,” the official from the chief minister’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS.

The twin cases - on the charges of land grabbing and de-notification (freeing from government control) by the chief minister - are slated to come up for hearing Monday on their admissibility in the special court of Judge C.B. Hipparagi.

Besides Yeddyurappa, his two sons-B.Y. Raghavendra, a Lok Sabha member from Shimoga in central Karnataka, and B.Y. Vijayendra, his son-in-law R.N. Sohan Kumar, former BJP minister S.N. Krishnaiah Setty and Davalagiri Property Developers Ltd, partly owned by his kin, have been named co-accused along with other close associates in the cases.

The cases were filed for offences allegedly committed by the chief minister and his kin under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The permission to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa was sought by the two advocates Dec 28 following revelations that Yeddyurappa had favoured his kin with prime land in and around Bangalore.

Former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu demanded the recall of the governor, saying Bhardwaj, by his action of sanctioning the prosecution of Yeddyurappa, has undermined democracy.

The BJP would raise the issue in the forthcoming budget session of parliament, Naidu told reporters in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada city, adding the continuation of Bhardwaj was detrimental to the relationship between the central government and the states.