Yeddyurappa to meet Karna Guv tomorrow
Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa will meet Governor HR Bhardwaj over the Karnataka crisis on Wednesday, media reports said.
Yeddyurappa on Tuesday evening paraded 122 MLAs before President Pratibha Patil here proving that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the magic numbers to remain in the hot seat in the southern state.
After meeting the president, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said they have urged the President to recall Governor HR Bhardwaj who he alleged was resorting unconstitutional means to dislodge a majority government and suggesting President’s rule.
Yeddyurappa said he had proved his majority before President Pratibha Patil.
In Karnataka, Governor H R Bhardwaj on the other hand issued a strong statement saying the Chief Minister and the Speaker tampered with numbers as he justified the President’s rule.
Earlier, reacting to Karnataka governor H R Bhardwaj?s recommendation of President?s Rule in the state, Yeddyurappa said he has full confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and hoped he won?t take any ?undemocratic? decision.
“Let us not presume things. I have got 100 per cent confidence in the Prime Minister that he will not take any undemocratic decision and I have got 100 per cent hope that we will get justice,” Yeddyurappa told reporters on Tuesday.
Yeddyurappa arrived New Delhi with the BJP MLAs late Monday night.
“Governor of Karnataka has been trying to destabilise our government right from beginning. We request President and Prime Minister to save Karnataka, to save democracy by recalling the Governor,” Yeddyurappa told mediapersons.
The BJP leader said he has been advised by the top brass of party, including Arun Jaitley, and L K Advani.
Meanwhile, sources told CNN-IBN news channel that the Centre is unlikely to accept Bhardwaj’s recommendation to dismiss the Yeddyurappa government.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rallied together on Monday as they met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding the recall of Bhardwaj.
The BJP, beefed by the renewed backing of 16 Karnataka legislators who had earlier rebelled, and led by senior leader Advani, slammed the governor?s call for President?s rule in Karnataka as illegal, unconstitutional and “a murder of democracy.”
“Despite the fact that the Chief Minister said he wanted to convene the Assembly, the Governor did not. If the Chief Minister wants to convene the house, it cannot be denied,” Advani asserted saying that the PM had assured them that nothing unconstitutional would be done in Karnataka.
The Congress-led coalition at the Centre trod carefully and seemed non-committal over the government?s report and appeal to establish President?s rule. Sources said the government was ?not in a rush? to discuss the governor?s report.
Earlier in the morning, Yeddyurappa had convened an urgent legislature party meeting of the BJP while the party?s MLAs marched through the streets of Bangalore and gathered before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
The governor was conspiring against the state government and as a former law minister he must know and play by the rules or else face a dharna, said Yeddyurappa, after Bhardwaj called for the President’s rule in Karnataka.
Accusing the governor of wanting to rule the state himself, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said, ?Our government is safe and stable. What is going on is a tamasha, a madness.?
?I don’t know if he [Bhardwaj] is doing it all by himself or with support from Delhi. We can only prove our majority. The anti Constitutional behaviour of the governor will be protested in Delhi also,? Naidu said.
The governor had recommended President?s rule citing a constitutional breakdown in the state and submitting a report to the Congress-led Centre against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka.
An irate BJP came out blaring all guns and horns as party leader Arun Jaitley slammed Bhardwaj and the Congress for mulling over establishing President?s rule in state where there was ?clearly a majority government?.
?This is motivated. This is unconstitutional,? said Jaitley, indicating that the BJP will not take it lying down.
India’s top constitutional experts also slammed the governor for what they called “acting like an errand boy of the Congress” to dislodge a government enjoying full support of majority.
Bhardwaj had advised the President to put the house in suspended animation.
Bhardwaj alleged breakdown of constitutional machinery in Karnataka and accused Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Speaker K G Bopaiah of misusing the constitutional provisions to win trust vote in October last year.
A total of 16 MLAs — five independents and 11 from the BJP who had rebelled against the CM — were suspended by Speaker K G Bopaiah on Oct 11 last year, hours before B S Yeddyurappa’s trust vote, allowing him to win by a wafer-thin margin.
The Karnataka Assembly has 224 seats.
But as the Supreme Court overturned the suspensions of the 16 MLAs on Friday, it seemed that the Karnataka government was in danger of being swayed and it was only frantic meetings between the BJP and the legislators that once again cemented their backing, thus sealing Yeddyurappa?s majority.
Sixteen MLAs, who had rebelled against Yeddyurappa, on Sunday once again threw their weight behind the chief minister after the BJP pacified the legislators reportedly promising ministerial posts and other perks.
