Beleagured Yeddyurappa drops two more colleagues

Bangalore : Beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, facing vote of confidence to prove his majority,expelled two more rebel Ministers on Thursday to stem the crisis riddled BJP government.

Yeddyurappa said he had requested state Governor H R Bharadwaj to delete names of Municipal Administration Minister Balachandra Jarakihole and Minister for Fisheries Anand Asnotikar from the cabinet’s ministerial list.

With this, the number of dissident Ministers sacked from Yeddyurappa’s 28-month-old-ministry, has came to six after 19 BJP legislators withdrew support to the government.

On Wednesday,the Chief Minister, after sacking four ministers had warned the rebels Mlas to return or face consequences.

Interestingly, Yeddyurappa has not taken any action against Excise Minister M P Renukacharya, who was leading the dissidents.

The Governor has asked Yeddyurappa, who left for Kannur district in Kerala to offer prayers at the Rajarajeshwari temple, to face trial of strength before October 12.

BJP’s central leaders have deputed Venkaiah Naidu to mediate and defuse the crisis to save its first-ever BJP Government in the southern India.

Naidu, who blamed the Congress for fomenting crisis in Karnataka, is expected to reach Bangalore later during the day to act as peace broker and formulate strategies to resolve the crisis.

BJP sources said Yeddyurappa is likely to move a confidence motion in the Assembly to prove majority on October 11, a day before the deadline set by Governor H R Bharadwaj.

Efforts to pacify the dissident leaders intensified with state Ministers Janardhan Reddy and B Sriramulu holding parleys with various factions.

Around 12 dissident legislators, who arrived Mumbai from Kochi on Thursday, announced plans to go to Shirdi Sai Baba temple to offer prayers later during the day.

19 MLAs – 14 belongng to BJP and the rest independent – had submitted letters to Governor H R Bharadwaj seeking withdrawal of their support to the government.

As a compromise formula, Yeddyurappa had earlier sacked four independent legislators — Shivaraj Thangadagi, Venkataramanappa, P M Narendraswamy and D Sudhakar — from his Ministry to pave way for induction of members of the dissident faction.

The disgruntled legislators, who were holed up in a resort in Chennai before submitting their letters to the Governor, had been demanding re-induction of sacked Minister and independent MLA Goolahatti Shekhar.

They have also been seeking resignation of IT Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu after he and his son were accused of carrying out a multi-crore land scam, besides accusing the government of failing to usher development.

This was second time in 52 months of BJP rule in Karnataka that legislators have led a tirade against Yeddyurappa.

In 2009 end, state Ministers Janardhan Reddy, Karunakar Reddy and S Sriramulu had led a coup against the Chief Minister, but later fell in line after a compromise.