Yeddyurappa will resign if case is made out, says Rajnath
By IANSThursday, February 3, 2011
BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will quit if a ‘prima facie’ (at first view) case is made out on corruption and illegal land deal charges against him, former BJP president Rajnath Singh said Thursday.
“He will quit if prima facie case is made out, no need to tell him to,” Singh told reporters here.
Singh said there was no need for Yeddyurappa to quit now as no case has been made out.
Yeddyurappa, the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister in south India, said at a public function elsewhere in the city that if charges that he has amassed Rs.1,000 crore since coming to power in May 2008 were proved, he would quit within 24 hours.
The allegation against the chief minister was levelled by Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Revanna here Wednesday.
Rajnath Singh denied that the BJP was split over Yeddyurappa’s continuation as chief minister in spite of Governor H.R. Bhardwaj sanctioning his prosecution.
Five complaints have been filed in a Bangalore city court by two advocates after Bhardwaj gave them sanction to try Yeddyurappa.
The complaints allege that Yeddyurappa favoured his kin in land allotment and also denotified lands to benefit people who invested money in his sons’ business ventures.
The court is yet to take cognizance of the complaints.
Singh disapproved of Bhardwaj giving his sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa on “the basis of a piece of paper” - a reference to the petition of the two advocates to Bhardwaj to allow them to file cases against the chief minister.
The senior BJP leader said people should wait for the completion of the probe by the judicial commission and the Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) into allegations against Yeddyurappa.
After demand for his resignation mounted, Yeddyyurappa set up a judicial commission headed by retired judge of the Karnataka High Court B. Padmaraj to probe various land deals from 1995 to November 2010.
Lok Ayukta N. Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, has also been petitioned by the JD-S to probe charges against Yeddyurappa.
Singh disagreed with statements of his senior party colleague Jaswant Singh that all those in power and facing allegations should quit.
He also denied there was any ‘internal probe ‘ by the BJP into charges against Yeddyurappa, as stated by party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
