'Operation Lotus’ Buried, Reddy Brothers to Stay: Yeddy

Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, May 30: Completing three years in office and entering the final phase of last two years of his rule with confidence, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa announced a quiet burial to the much-criticised ''Operation Lotus" for increasing the strength of ruling BJP in the Assembly by luring MLAs elected on Congress and JD(S) symbols to resign and contest as saffron candidates.

''We enjoy a clear majority in the lower house and there is no need for wooing MLAs from other parties," he said adding: ''All our MLAs, who had been misled and misguided into turning rebels, have realized their folly and come back into the party fold. They have learnt their lessons and the party is united. There is no dissidence in the party."

Yeddyurappa, in his hour-long interaction with the media on the completion of his three-year rule, spent a considerable in answering questions on the Bellary mining lords, Tourism and Infrastructure Minister G Janardhana Reddy, Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy and their close associate Health Minister B Sriramulu, who had caused serious problems for the Government at various points of time during the last three years, and asserted that there was no questions of dropping the Reddy Brothers.

''They are part and parcel of the Government. They would not be dropped or disturbed," he said pointing out that the allegations of illegal mining and other charges against the Bellary Reddy Brothers were yet to be proved.

Trying to play safe on Sushma Swaraj’s stand that she had no role to play in the induction of Reddy Brothers in the state cabinet, Yeddyurappa said: ''What she says is entirely correct. She is our national leader and opposition leader in Lok Sabha. I finalized the names of ministers after consulting national party leaders, including our then national President Rajnath Singh." The Chief Minister, however, chose not to comment on Arun Jaitely and Venkaiah Naidu, who were looking after the party affairs at that time.

Apparently, Yeddyurappa seems to be keen to ensure that he does not get on the wrong side of Sushma Swaraj, who is close to the Reddy brothers and is believed to be not on very good terms with her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitely, the BJP’s chief strategist. In any case, the Chief Minister enjoys the confidence of BJP national president Nitin Gadkari. With the Reddy brothers presently being embroiled in a Supreme Court monitored case on illegal mining and the Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde expected to submit his final report on illegal mining activities in the State shortly, Yeddyurpapa is understood to be keen to avoid any trouble from the Bellary Reddy brothers at this stage as he is quite confident of handling all the others.

He strongly defended his trusted cabinet colleague, Housing Minister V Somanna, on the alleged involvement of his son in illegal mining in Gubbi taluk of Tumkur district and clarified: ''Not a single tonne of iron ore was lifted from the land. I have gone through the documents pertaining to illegal mining in Gubbi taluk."

Yeddyurappa said his government’s focus in the remaining two years would be to speed up the process of rural development and work for upliftment of farmers and rural masses. ''I want Karnataka to become a well-developed, most progressive state. It should be transformed into Kalyana Karnataka (Welfare State)."

Rural development, supply of electricity to farmers’ IP sets, houses to below poverty line families, developing road network and access to education for all would be BJP’s focus areas, he said while taking care to clarify that it should be construed as preparations for the next assembly elections.

Yeddyurappa, who travelled 2.60 lakh kms and addressed 1750 public meetings across the State in the last three years, said the State’s finances were stable and the farm growth rate increased from 1.5 % to 6 % of the State Gross Domestic Product. A global investors’ meet on the agriculture would be organised to attract investment of Rs. 50,000 crore during the year and investment would be diverted for setting up godowns, cold storages and food processing industries. ''There is a plenty of work to do in the coming days," he added.