Bangalore: BJP Crisis Deepens as More Legislators Join Rebels
Bangalore/Panaji, Oct 10 (IANS): The crisis in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday deepened, with more party legislators, including two who returned to the party fold in the last two days, joining the rebels in Goa while a dissident minister said he was returning to the party fold.
Excise Minister M.P. Renukacharya, who spearheaded the latest revolt against the party leadership, returned to Bangalore from Goa, expressing support to beleaguered Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who will seek the trust vote October 11 to save his 29-month-old first BJP government in the southern state.
Meanwhile, BJP lawmakers S.K. Bellubbi and Shivanagouda Naika, who pledged support to the government Thursday, made a u-turn and flew to Goa with party legislator Manappa Majjala to increase the number of rebels to 19, including six Independents.
"Bellubbi and Naika have come back. They are joined by Majjala and Shankarlinge Gowda to be with the rebels, who have decided to defy the party whip and vote against the trust vote Monday," Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) state president and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswmy told reporters in Bangalore.
JD-S MP N. Cheluvaryaswamy escorted the rebel legislators to Goa in a helicopter on the directions of Kumaraswamy and JD-S supreme H.D. Deve Gowda. Speaking to reporters in Goa before his return, Renukacharya said: "I have left the rebels for good, as they refused to toe the party line and save the government from the present crisis. They are carried away by false promises made by the rival JD-S and the Congress, which have been conspiring to bring down the government during the last fortnight."
He also alleged that the JD-S had promised ministerial berths to all the rebels and Rs.25 crore if they vote against the confidence motion and facilitate alternative government with the support of the Congress.
Even as the nine party rebels, camping at Goa with five independents remained incommunicado, state Infrastructure Minister G. Janardhana Reddy, who rushed to Goa Thursday as an emissary to pacify them, left the resort and headed to Hubli in north Karnataka after apparently failing to make the rebels fall in line.
Karnataka Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti, who was also in Goa, accused the JD-S and the Congress of "kidnapping the rebel BJP legislators and whisking them away from Goa to an unknown destination" so as to prevent them from returning to the party fold.
"Senior Goa police officials were used to physically shift the legislators out of a hotel (Taj Exotica), with the help of hired goons," Katti told reporters in Panaji. However, one of the rebels denied Katti's allegations.
Saying the rebels had walked out of the negotiations on their own, Karwar legislator Anand Asnotikar told reporters at the Dabolim airport that that a final call on whether to support the BJP government in Karnataka or not would be taken later.
"We are not children that someone can just drag us out of hotel. We are flying to Bangalore. A final decision on the support issue will be taken by tonight," said Asnotikar, a former minister in the Yeddyurappa government.
Earlier in the day, BJP leaders claimed that most major issues raised by the dissenting Karnataka legislators had been resolved. North Goa BJP MP Shripad Naik said that things were optimistic for the party.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka BJP issued a three-line whip to all its 117 legislators to vote in favour of the confidence motion and warned the rebels of expulsion and disqualification from the assembly if they defied the whip.
JD-S also issued the whip to its 28 legislators, including Channapatna lawmaker M.C. Ashwath, whose whereabouts have been not known since Thursday, to vote against the motion.
Expressing confident that Yeddyurappa would sail through the trust vote, party's state unit president K.S. Eshwarappa told reporters that assembly Speaker K.G. Bapaiah would disqualify all the 11 dissident legislators against whom a show-cause notice was issued Friday for a reply by 5 p.m. Sunday.
Among the other charges against the rebels are joining hands with the JD-S and independents to reduce the government to minority and creating political instability in the state.
Rebels challenge showcause notices: seek 7 days time to reply
Bangalore, Oct 10 (PTI): BJP rebels in Karnataka, who want Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to resign, today challenged the showcause notices issued to them by Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah terming it as illegal, unconstitutional, motivated and devoid of jurisdiction and sought 7 days time to reply to it.
The rebels, in an application filed through their counsels, questioned the three-day deadline set by the Speaker to reply to the showcause notice slapped on them on the basis of a complaint lodged by Yeddyurappa seeking their disqualification under provisions of Anti-defection law.
The Speaker had on October seven served the notices to 11 BJP MLAs, a day after they submitted a letter to Governor H R Bhardwaj, withdrawing support to the Yeddyurappa government which faces a trust vote on Monday.
Bopaiah had asked the rebels to reply to the allegations levelled against them before October 10 by five pm, an action that evoked criticism from opposition Congress, JD(S) and even the rebels.
The rebels, in their application, defended their action of withdrawing support to Yeddyurappa government, saying they were disillusioned with it after the government faced charges of corruption, nepotism and favouritism.
The withdrawal of support to the government does not attract the provisions of the anti-defection laws under 10th schedule of the constitution, they argued.Under the Karnataka Legislative Assembly (disqualification of a member on the ground of defection) rules 1986 and rule 6 and 7 (3), it is mandatory for providing a seven-day period for replying to any notice, the rebels said.
The MLAs also sought dismissal of the complaint lodged by Yeddyurappa.The Speaker, after hearing the counsels for the rebel MLAs, passed an order today asking the complainant (Yeddyurappa) to personally appear before him or through his counsel by 3.30 pm tomorrow.
Asnotikar denies kidnapping, says decision on support later
Panaji, Oct 9, (IANS): One of the 13 rebel Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators of Karnataka Saturday denied the BJP's claim that they had been kidnapped by the Congress and the Janata Dal-S (JD-S), saying they had walked out of the negotiations on their own.
Speaking to reporters at the Dabolim airport, Karwar legislator Anand Asnotikar said that they were not children and that a final call on whether to support the BJP government in Karnataka or not would be taken later.
"We are not children that someone can just drag us out of hotel. We are flying to Bangalore. A final decision on the support issue will be taken by tonight," said Asnotikar, a former minister in the Yeddyurappa government.
Asnotikar is one of the rebels who were in Goa since Thursday, where they had been negotiating both with the Congress and the BJP emissaries for three days, before suddenly leaving the hotel premises in a sudden rush Saturday afternoon. A BJP leaders claimed that the police machinery had been misused by the Congress and the JD-S leaders to kidnap the legislators from the Taj Exotica resort in the coastal village of Benaulim, 40 km from here.
"Talks were going well till afternoon. Suddenly police officers came with several goons and physically lifted our MLAs. The Goa police were literally protecting the goons who were manhandling the MLAs," Ramesh Katti, a BJP MP from Karnataka, told reporters here.
He accused Jamir Ahmad, an aide of JD-S working president and former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, of orchestrating the kidnapping. Accusing the Congress and JD-S of indulging in horse-trading and offering as much as Rs.25 crore to each dissenting legislator to switch sides during the trust vote, Katti alleged the ministers of the Congress-led Goa government were intimidating the legislators.
"Home Minister Ravi Naik and Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao had been using the state government machinery to intimidate the legislators," Katti said. Earlier in the day, BJP leaders claimed that most major issues raised by the dissenting Karnataka legislators had been resolved. North Goa BJP MP Shripad Naik said that things were optimistic for the party.
Rebel MLA Sampangi's office ransacked
The office of a BJP dissident MLA from Kolar Gold Fields was allegedly ransacked today, police said.
"Some unidentified people barged into Y Sampangi's office, ransacked it and burnt some furniture," they said. However, no complaint has been registered so far, they said.
Y Sampangi, first time MLA from KGF, is among the 11 BJP legislators served notices by Karnataka Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah to explain why they cannot be disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Sampangi was allegedly caught by the Lokyukta last year taking a bribe from a businessman to get a property case closed.
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