Kudalasangama, Jan 15 (IANS): Continuing his tirade against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, rebel BJP leader and former Union minister Basanagouda Patil Yatnal claimed on Thursday that Yediyurappa's grandchildren were 'recording CDs' to blackmail him and get their illegal works done through him.

Yatnal is leading an agitation along with Panchamasali Lingayat Matha seer Jaya Mrutunjaya Swamiji, demanding that their community be included in 2A reservation category of Backward Classes in the state.

B S Yediyurappa (left) and Basanagouda Patil Yatnal

As part of the agitation, the community launched a 'padayatra' from Kudalasangama to Bengaluru on Thursday. Kudalasangama is an important centre of pilgrimage for Lingayats to which both Yediyurappa and Yatnal belong.

Yatnal said that the same copies of CDs have fallen into the hands of a section of Congress leaders, including D.K. Shivakumar, and some of his rivals in the BJP itself.

Addressing the Panchamasali Lingayat community's rally in Koodalasangama in Bagalkot district, Yatnal said that some of the CDs captured Yediyurappa's corrupt deeds while in some such things have been captured which can't even be discussed.

"Yediyurappa is caught in a web of deceit. His own family members have captured his ill-deeds and have started blackmailing him," he alleged.

While speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the rally, Yatnal said he never believed in blackmail politics, instead he believed in straightforward talk.

"I neither have any CD nor do I want to possess one. If I had a CD, I would have been the Deputy Chief Minister of the state," he said.

He reiterated that the CDs have been circulated among the politicians and those who blackmailed Yediyurappa have now become ministers in his cabinet. "At least two of them are presently serving under him as ministers," he said, but refused to divulge any further detail.

Yatnal claimed that Congress leaders, including Siddaramaiah, Belagavi Rural MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, KPCC president Shivakumar and Chamarajpet MLA B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, are also constantly blackmailing Yediyurappa.

"Unprecedented amount of grant being released to these constituencies is a case in point. These leaders have been blackmailing Yediyurappa and he too is succumbing to their pressure and paying the price for it," he said.