3 more cases against Yeddyurappa, BJP firm on Bhardwaj’s ouster (Roundup)

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI - Three more complaints were filed in a Bangalore court Monday against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa as the Bharatiya Janata Party intensified its campaign for Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s recall for sanctioning the chief minister’s prosecution.

This takes the number of complaints filed by two Bangalore advocates, Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj, against Yeddyurappa to five. They had filed two on Saturday, a day after Bhardwaj granted them permission to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa and others over various charges.

The complaints list a number of instances of alleged illegal transfer of land, abuse of power, criminal conspiracy, cheating and illegal financial gains against Yeddyruappa, his two sons, son-in-law and several others.

Insisting that there was no truth in the allegations, Yeddyurappa threatened to launch defamation proceedings against Bhardwaj for his comments on the state government.

Yeddyurapa claimed that he had information “that all the petitions submitted to him (governor) against the government were drafted in (the Karnataka) Raj Bhavan”.

He declined to elaborate.

In New Delhi, a BJP delegation led by senior leader L.K. Advani met President Pratibha Patil and demanded that Bhardwaj be recalled as he was “biased” against the party’s government in the state.

“We have come to knock on the doors of the president as his (Bhardwaj’s) way of dealing with things is against the constitution,” Advani said at Rashtrapati Bhavan, referring to the governor’s sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa.

“The governor has insulted the constitution. He was biased from day one and has let his post down,” added Advani. The BJP alleged the governor was trying to fulfil his political ambitions.

“The dignity and the prestige of the office of the governor, in Karnataka, has suffered a great deal. Therefore, we are constrained to complain against Shri H.R. Bhardwaj,” the memorandum submitted by the BJP to the president said, urging her to initiate steps to recall him so that “constitutional order can be restored in the state”.

Referring to Bhardwaj’s action of sanctioning prosecution of the chief minister, its said, “It was done in undue haste with political motives” and “caused anguish” to the state’s people.

The “mindset of His Excellency is motivated by extraneous and collateral purposes”, it said, adding a governor cannot substitute himself for a commission of inquiry or the Lok Ayukta (ombudsman).

Accusing Bhardwaj of acting from “personal and political malice”, the memorandum said the governor had been showing a “confrontationist attitude” from the very start.

Quoting Bhardwaj’s remarks, it said “he has crossed all the boundaries which circumscribe the office of the governor as constitutional head of the state”.

In Bangalore, Yeddyurappa was blunt: “It is better for him (Bhardwaj) and also for the state if he leaves this place.”

The chief minister demanded “unconditional’ apology from Bhardwaj for his “ulta chor kotwal ko daante” (akin to thief reprimanding the police) comment in reference to the state cabinet resolution urging him not to entertain the plea of the two advocates to grant sanction for Yeddyurappa’s prosecution.

“Such comments had provoked the people for a ‘bandh’ (shut-down) on Saturday,” Yeddyurappa said.

Yeddyurappa and state BJP leaders are insisting that the bandh was voluntary and not called by the party.

An advocate has filed a petition against the government and the BJP, contending that it was contempt of court as the Supreme Court had frowned on political parties organising bandhs.

On why he had not moved the high court for stay of Bhardwaj’s sanction order, Yeddyurappa said party elders would decide on it in about two days.

Though there was talk that Yeddyurappa may move the high court Monday, he had told reporters in New Delhi Sunday that he would not do so. He was in the national capital to brief party leaders ahead of their Monday’s meeting with president.

In the five complaints, the advocates have named Yeddyurappa as accused number one, followed by his two sons, one of whom, B. Y. Raghavendra, is a BJP Lok Sabha member, son-in-law and some companies owned by them.

The complaints claim Yeddyurappa and others named in the complaint had made Rs.189 crore from various land allotments and also caused a loss of Rs.465 crore to the government.