Will Retire from Politics if Phone-tapping Charges Proved: Yeddy

Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Jul 25: Chief minister of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa has denied allegations made by Justice Santosh Hegde that his phone was tapped by the state government.

Rubbishing the allegatiion, Yeddyurappa said that he has written a letter to the Prime Minister and also to BJP party president Nitin Gadkari to conduct a detailed probe into the allegation. He also declared that if proven guilty, he would not only resign from his chair, but also retire from politics.

Speaking to the media in Bangalore on July 25 at 4.30 pm, Yeddyurappa made a suggestion to the PM to conduct an inquiry, and also requested him to include former PM H D Deve Gowda, former Karnataka CM and present union minister for external affairs S M Krishna and Justice Santosh Hegde himself in the inquiry comittee.

He urged the media not to mislead people with false reports and said that a couple of TV channels in the state have been misleading the public by reporting that he has threatened the BJP high command with dissolution of the assembly if asked to resign.

B S Yeddyurappa has called a meeting of all the state MPs at his residence on July 31, a day before the parilament session is to begin. He would brief the MPs about development work carried out by him during the last three years, and also urge them to defend the state against the alleged mining scam.

A visibly confident Yeddyurappa once again criticised the opposition parties for their one-point agenda of destabilising his government. "Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had once openly said that if BJP continues to rule the state for the next two years, his JD(S) will no more have its presence in the state," Yeddyurappa said.

In reply to a question by a journalist, Yeddyurappa said that he is a disciplined soldier of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and will always abide by the decision of his party.