Yeddy in Delhi, delegation to meet President today

A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs and MLAs from Karnataka will, with members of the party’s central leadership, meet President Pratibha Patil tomorrow to complain against the conduct of the state governor, H R Bhardwaj, and ask for his removal.

The governor has sanctioned prosecution on criminal charges of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, among others, for alleged culpability in land scams.

Nitin Gadkari, the party’s national head, is reported to have said in Beijing where he is visiting that Yeddyurappa had not breached the law, though there could be questions on the morality of his actions. However, if the BJP was ambivalent about the conduct of Yeddyurappa, it kept its doubts to itself. The CM arrived here today and said he was trying to meet Union home minister P Chidambaram.

“I want to meet Chidambaram. I want to explain everything. Can we tolerate all these things (Governor giving sanction for prosecution)? This is an insult to the people of Karnataka, this is an insult to the Chief Minister and an insult to the democratic system,” he said.

The CM will decide in consultation with the party leadership whether to challenge the governor’s prosecution order in the Karnataka high court tomorrow for staying the proceedings in the special Lokyayukta (Ombudsman) court where two criminal cases were filed yesterday by city advocates K N Balaraj and Sirajin Basha, an official from the chief minister’s office said on anonymity.

“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 Delhi. The twin cases on the charges of land grabbing and de-notification (freeing from government control) by the CM are slated to come for hearing tomorrow on their admissibility in the special court of judge C B Hipparagi.

Yeddyurappa and his two sons, B Y Raghavendra, a BJP member of the Lok Sabha, and B Y Vijayendra, are among those against whom the complaints were filed, under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

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

Yeddyurappa told journalists in Delhi that Bhardwaj, Union law minister till he was made state governor, had been trying to destabilise the government from the the time he took charge in mid-2009. “As soon as he took over as the Governor...He is (acting like) a Congressman even today. He wanted BJP to go and Congress to come to rule.”

When it was pointed out that Chidambaram had already criticised the BJP for its attack on the Governor, he said, “I have great respect for Chidambaram. He may not be aware of the facts. I am trying to meet him and explain all these things.”

He also refused to comment on Gadkari's remarks that the controversial land allotment made by him was not an “illegal act”, though denotifying land in favour of his son was “immoral” and “not proper”.