Bangalore: Yeddy Sacks Asnotikar, Jarkiholi - Bellubbi, Others Return

By Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Oct 7: Indicating that he is confident of weathering the mounting storm to dislodge him, the beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has sacked two more dissident ministers –Fisheries Minister Anand Asnotikar and Municipal Administration Minister Balachandra Jarkiholi – both of whom had joined BJP under the much-criticised ``Operation Kamala” from Congress and JD(S) and became MLAs in fresh by-elections on the Lotus symbol.

The Chief Minister, who issued the orders for axing the two ministers before leaving on his Kerala pilgrimage to seek divine blessings for continuation in office, had reportedly sent the letters to Governor H R Bhardwaj.

Yeddyurappa, however, desisted from taking any action against the ring leader of the entire dissident movement, Excise Minister M P Renkacharya, apparently to persuade him to return.

Meanwhile, former minister S K Bellubbi, who was the first victim of the ``Operation Kamala” when he was asked to quit to make way for a newcomer and had identified himself with last year’s revolt against Yeddyurappa led by the Bellary Mining Lords led by Toursim and Infrastructure Development Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy and also in the present campaign led by Renukacharya and had gone to Chennai, has already returned to the Yeddyurappa camp.

The Chief Minister has reportedly promised Bellubbi that he would be accommodate in the next round of cabinet expansion as already six vacancies had been created with the sacking of four independents on Wednesday and another two on Thursday. In addition, a few more ministers have also offered to quit to help the Chief Minister to safeguard his position by accommodating more aspirants.

Incidentally, the BJP high command’s trouble-shooter and emissary Venkaiah Naidu, who arrived from Delhi, held a series of meetings with State Party President K S Eshwarappa and BJP national General Secretary Ananth Kumar in a bid to diffuse the crisis.

Naidu, who spoke to reporters in the presence of Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar and other party leaders, expressed the confidence that the present crisis will be resolved. He criticised the Congress and JD(S) leaders for trying to destabilize a democratically elected government by pouring huge sums of money and warned that such gimmicks will not succeed.

He, however, refused to answer questions on whether there was a possibility of change of leadership. ``Yeddyurappa is our leader,” was his cryptic reply.

There is speculation in political circles that the BJP high command might be ready to sacrifice Yeddyurappa if it became inevitable and install somebody more amenable and non-controversial like Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar as he might not pose any challenge to anybody and help in refurbishing the tarnished image of the BJP Government as hardly two and half years is left before the next round of assembly elections in 2013.

Five Karnataka BJP MLAs Whisked Away to Goa Resort 
3.05 pm

Mumbai/Panaji, Oct 7 (IANS) Five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators from Karnataka landed at the Dabolim airport in Goa Thursday and were immediately whisked away to a resort in south Goa.

While names of the five BJP legislators were not available, the group landed in Goa from a flight that arrived from Mumbai 12.35 p.m. Sources said that rooms for the BJP legislators had been booked for three days at a starred resort in south Goa.

BJP spokesperson Govind Parvatkar said the state unit was not aware of the arrival of the BJP legislators from Karnataka in Goa.

"We do not have any information on this. We have learnt about it only from the media. We are not keeping track on them," Parvatkar told reporters.