Yeddy Regime Plunges into Crisis, Asked to Prove Majority by Oct 12
By Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Latest at 8.30 pm IST
Efforts on to win back support of disgruntled MLAs
Bangalore, Oct 6: With the 28-month-old B S Yeddyurappa regime threatened to being reduced to a minority government following the decision of as many as 19 MLAs, including seven ministers comprising three elected from BJP and four independents who had extended unconditional support to the ruling party to gain majority in the 224-member state assembly to gain a simple majority after the May 2008 assembly polls, hectic efforts of wooing and enticing the disgruntled MLAs to return back to the chief minister’s camp.
Though there is speculation of at least 3 to 4 MLAs returning the Yeddyurappa camp, no firm confirmation was available. However, one of BJP MLA, Doddanagounda G Patil is believed to have promised to support the chief minister.
Incidentally, efforts are also underway to exert pressure on the dissident MLAs through their friends, family members and respective party units in the taluks and districts not to turn against the leadership of the chief minister. The first to fall victim to such pressure tactics in KGF MLA, Y Sampagi, who had been caught red-handed by Lokayukta police while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a litigant. The MLA was, however, bailed out by the party.
The names of all the 19 MLAs, including ministers, is as follows:
1. M P Renukacharya – minister
2. Anand Asnotikar – minister
3. Balachandra Jarkiholi – minister
4. Shivaraj S Thangadagi – minister
5. D Sudhakar – minister
6. P M Narendra Swamy – minister
7. Venkataramanappa – minister
8. Goplakrishna Belur – MLA
9. Dr Bagali Sarvabhouma N – MLA
10. Bharamagouda H Kage – MLA
11. Y Sampangi – MLA
12. G N Nanjundaswamy – MLA
13. M V Nagaraju – MLA
14. Doddanagouda G Patil – MLA
15. Sangappa Kalappa Bellubbi – MLA
16. Shivanagouda Nayak – MLA
17. H S Shankaralinge Gowda – MLA
18. Goolihatti D Shekar - MLA
19. Narasimha Nayak (Raju Gowda) – MLA
4.30pm IST
In a day of dramatic political developments, the 28-month-old BJP Government in Karnataka headed by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa plunged into a deep crisis with as many as 19 MLAs, including five independents who had lent unconditional support after the 2008 assembly polls, informing Governor H R Bhardwaj of their decision to withdraw support to the Yeddyurappa regime.
The Governor, who had accepted the recommendation of the Chief Minister on dropping four of the ministers – D Sudhakar, Shivaraj Thangadgi, P Venkataramana and P M Narendraswamy – from the cabinet earlier in the morning, has asked the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly on or before October 12. Incidentally, the four axed ministers are among the 19 MLAs, who had informed the Governor of their decision to withdraw support to the Government.
Incidentally, the opposition Congress and JD(S), who precipitated the crisis by exposing various land scams involving the Chief Minister and Housing and Information Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, in a bid to corner the Yeddyurappa regime and if possible destabilize it, are planning their own strategies to exploit the situation.
With Governor asking the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly by October 12, which could be done by voice vote without any debate, the two parties are planning to put the Government on the mat by moving a no-confidence motion of their own and thereby compel the Chief Minister to force a debate. Either way, the Government would be in trouble if it fails to win over the dissidents in the next couple of days.
The Chief Minister, who appeared to have weathered the rising storm with his bold decision earlier in the morning to axe the four ministers, was taken by surprise by the decision of the 19-member group of legislators, who had flown to Chennai to carry out their dissident activities under the leadership of Excise Minister M P Renukacharya, on withdrawal of their support.
It remains to be seen whether Yeddyurappa will be able to win over the dissidents and prevail upon them to relent and prove his majority in the 224-member Assembly. The ruling party’s strength was 117 prior to the dramatic developments, where the Government requires 113 members for a simple majority.
The Chief Minister, who was obviously informed by his intelligence authorities of the moves of the dissidents to withdraw support to the Government, indicated that the legislators would return to the party-fold and refrain from causing any trouble. ``We are confident of proving our majority on the floor of the Assembly as and when the situation arises,” he said even before the news of the 19 member group of legislators, including four ministers meeting the Governor became public.
Yeddyurappa, who began the day with informal consultations with senior cabinet colleagues and state party president K S Eshwarappa besides meeting the RSS leaders in the city along with state BJP orginising secretary Santhosh, had to postpone the emergency cabinet meeting scheduled for 10 am. The cabinet meeting finally took place around 11.30 am, when the chief minister reportedly sounded out his cabinet colleagues on the need to create another 3 to 4 vacancies in addition to the four vacancies caused by the sacking of the independents so as to enable him to accommodate most of the prominent dissidents and disgruntled elements.
The Chief Minister, who addressed reporters at a crowded news conference in
Vidhana Soudha flanked by almost all the cabinet ministers including Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy, the elder brother of Tourism and Infrastructure Development Minister G Janardhana Reddy, who had raised the banner of revolt against the Yeddyurappa regime, indicated that at least 3 to 4 ministers had offered to resign from the cabinet voluntarily and an opportunity would be given to some of the disgruntled ministerial aspirants to join the cabinet.
Yeddyurappa also held out a warning to the dissidents, who had gone to Chennai, to return or face disciplinary action including disqualification, which in other words implies a ban on their contesting elections for the next six years from any party or even as independents. He asked the dissident MLAs not to hurt the ruling party or put the Governemnt in trouble by visiting Raj Bhavan to inform the Governor of their decision to withdraw support. He also appealed to the people of the respective constituencies of the dissident MLAs to force their elected representatives to behave.
The Chief Minister accused the Congress and JD(S) leaders of hatching a conspiracy to destabilize his Government as they had become jealous of its achievements. While he targeted JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his son, H D Kumaraswamy, the former chief minister and state JD(S) president, by exposing the various misdeeds and scandals during their tenure, he asked Congress party’s national leaders not to continue their habit of ``entering into an immoral relationship” with JD(S) to topple the democratically-elected Government.
"For the first time in the history of Karnataka, each legislator is offered between Rs 20 crore and Rs 30 crore (to shift loyalty) and it (money) already been handed over to their family members,” the Chief Minister alleged but did not elaborate. However, he said he and his cabinet colleagues will regularly expose the misdeeds and scandals involving Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy and the favouritism and nepotism shown by them when they were in power.
Bangalore: 19 MLAs Withdraw Support - Guv asks CM to Prove Majority by Oct 12
2.40 pm (IST)
Bangalore, Oct 6: In all 19 MLAs have withdrawn support to the state government, thus making the government shaky. With this shocking development, Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj has asked the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to prove majority on the floor by Tuesday October 12.
MLA Renukacharya is heading the revolting MLAs which comprises 14 BJP members and 5 independent members.
Meanwhile, the BJP is all set to stage another operation lotus. This time it has been cooking up backstage strategies to attract Congress men to its fold.
Bangalore: Crisis Deepens – Brazen Action, Reaction, CM on Slippery Footing
By Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Oct 6: Even as the opposition parties continue to vie with each other in an effort to dislodge the Yeddyurappa government in the state, the dissidents and Chief Minister, through their actions, seem to be hastening their own government’s downfall.
Even as the dissident legislators, who have been holed up in Chennai, continue to stay put at the Tamil Nadu capital, the Chief Minister has dropped four ministers, youth services and sports minister, D Sudhakar, minister for agricultural marketing, Shivaraj Tangadagi, textiles minister, Venkataramanappa, and animal husbandry minister, P M Narendraswamy.
D Sudhakar, Shivaraj Tangadagi
P M Narendraswamy, Venkataramanappa
In a parallel development, fisheries minister, Anand Asnotikar, and municipal administration minister, Balachandra Jarkiholi, who had gone to Chennai along with other dissident legislators, returned to the city today. They have reportedly submitted their resignations from the state ministry.
Mysore MLA, Shankaralinge Gowda, is said to have met the state Governor, Hansraj Bhardwaj, and expressed the decision to disassociate himself from the BJP. Asnotikar also reportedly met the Governor and claimed that 20 legislators, who are presently supporting the Yeddyurappa-led government, have withdrawn their support.
The political developments are happening so fast that it is difficult to gauge the final result of all these rumblings at once, although all of them point out to defiance of, and dissidence against the Chief Minister and his style of functioning.