Yedyyurappa in Delhi to discuss future course of action

NEW DELHI/BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Sunday met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to seek advice on his course of action to face the prosecution case filed against him by two city-based lawyers for alleged corruption.

Soon after reaching Delhi, Yeddyruppa was closeted with senior party leaders to discuss the political and legal strategies to challenge Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s action according sanction to his prosecution, party sources said. He is likely to meet BJP chief Nitin Gadkari Monday after the latter’s return from his five-day China visit Sunday night.

“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 this (Sunday) afternoon to apprise the party leadership on the political developments in the state following the governor’s (H.R. Bhardwaj) 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 advocates K.N. Balaraj and Sirajin Basha,” the official from the chief minister’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS.

Legal luminary and party’s Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani and senior counsel Satyapal Jain are likely to assist the chief minister in drafting the petition against the governor’s order in the high court.

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.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders particularly the party’s MPs from Karnataka are going to meet the President Pratibha Devisingh Patil Monday to submit a memorandum condemning the action of the governor and to seek his recall.

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.