Yeddyurappa returns, stage set for showdown

Mangalore Today / PTI

Bangalore:  Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is back in Bangalore after holidaying in Mauritius amid mounting pressure to step down in wake of a series of corruption charges. Just after setting foot in Bangalore, he targeted Lokayukta Santosh Hegde questioning why he spoke to the media about his report even before it was submitted.

 

 

"I am particularly hurt about phone-tapping. If the Lokayukta was suspicious that his phone was being tapped, he should have reported to the Central government... I am going to request to the Prime Minister to send a team to Karnataka to enquire about all these phone-tapping affairs," Mr Yeddyurappa said while addressing an impromptu press meet shortly after arriving in Bangalore.

The Karnataka Chief Minister said he will hold a press conference at 4.30 pm today and will answer all the charges there.

Earlier this week, Justice Hegde had confirmed that his report on illegal mining in the state names Mr Yeddyurappa.

Though the Lokayukta’s 5000-page report is unlikely to be submitted today, political temperatures are expected to rise with the CM defiant and even challenging the Lokayukta.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV from Mautritius, Mr Yeddyurappa said there was no question of him stepping down. "My party is behind me," he said. Reacting to the Lokayukta’s claims that his report has been leaked after his phones were tapped by people "with vested interests," Mr Yeddyurappa denied he and his government had anything to do with the Lokayukta’s phone getting tapped.  He also said he was "disappointed" at Hedge’s charge.

Mr Yeddyurappa added that "Santosh Hegde shouldn’t have spoken about his report till it is made public." He also said he wants Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the matter.

Mr Hegde finds that the Chief Minister’s family has inappropriate links with mining firms. For one, a trust run by Mr Yeddyurappa’s family in Shimoga received a Rs. 10-crore donation from a mining firm. Also, the Chief Minister’s son and son-in-law have sold land near the Bangalore airport to another mining company at 20 times the market price. Mr Hegde says these transactions seem to be some sort of "collateral."

However, most of the document’s politically explosive contents have been made public. The Lokayukta claims that it has been leaked after his phones were tapped. He said "outside people" are to blame and that he is confident his phones had been tapped by people "with vested interests."

Handling the multiple charges of corruption against Mr Yeddyurappa has been a political conundrum for the BJP for some time now. Officially, the party has so far evaded questions on Yeddyurappa’s fate, saying it will respond only after the Lokayukta report is made public. But there are now reports of a divide in the BJP national leadership over what should be done next.

Sources party vice-president and former in-charge for Karnataka, Shanta Kumar, has written to senior leader LK Advani and party president Nitin Gadkari asking them to remove Mr Yeddyurappa immediately as his continuance, he says, is tarnishing the party’s image. Former party president Venkaiah Naidu, however, wants no decision to be taken in haste. He wants the party to wait for a probe report.

Mr Yeddyurappa, the first BJP Chief Minister in a southern state, has survived all attacks against him in the last three years. But BJP’s big plans of taking on the UPA government on the issue of corruption in the forthcoming session of Parliament would certainly be dented if Yeddyurappa stays as Chief Minister.


Lokayukta To Submit Report On Wednesday

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde will submit his much-awaited report on illegal mining to the Government on Wednesday.“Yes, I will submit the report on Wednesday,” Hegde, a former Supreme Court Judge and member of Jan Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee, said here today. 

Lokayukta sources said much of the findings are already in the public domain as the report was leaked.The report has indicted Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and four ministers, among others, and pegged the loss to the state exchequer because of illegal mining between March 2009 and April 2010 at more than Rs 1,800 crore.