Bangalore:
A day after NDTV exposed a new land scam involving Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, there are now reports of a divide in the BJP national leadership over what should be done next. Earlier this week, Mr Yeddyurappa was also named in a report on illegal mining by Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde.
Sources party vice-president and former in-charge for Karnataka, Shanta Kumar, has written to senior leader LK Advani and party president Nitin Gadkari asking them to remove Mr Yeddyurappa immediately as his continuance, he says, is tarnishing the party's image. Former party president Venkaiah Naidu, however, wants no decision to be taken in haste. He wants the party to wait for a probe report.
"I have stated in my letter that due to Yeddyurappa's continuance in office, the image of the BJP throughout the country was getting tarnished. We have compromised long enough. We should not wait any longer and go for a change of leadership," Kumar told PTI.
Kumar, who is currently holidaying in Goa, said he could no longer bear reports about corruption in the Karnataka government and was forced to write this letter. "When I was in-charge of Karnataka and the charges against Yeddyurappa were made the last time, I had suggested to the party to remove him. When this did not happen I asked to be freed of my responsibilities," Kumar said.
Yeddyurappa, the first BJP Chief Minister in a southern state, has survived all attacks against him in the last three years since he came to power by convincing the party top brass that he has the support of the majority of his party MLAs. The 68-year-old Chief Minister is the most prominent Lingayat leader of the BJP in Karnataka and the party has been wary of antagonising the community by removing him.
Officially, the BJP has been evading questions on Yeddyurappa's fate, saying it will respond only after the Lokayukta report is made public.
"Going by the statements of Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, the report is still not finalised and he is still working on it. The BJP promises to come back with a response the moment the report comes," BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Friday.
But some reports say BJP's big plans of taking on the UPA government on the issue of corruption in the forthcoming session of Parliament would be dented if Yeddyurappa stays as Chief Minister.
YEDDYURAPPA'S NEW LAND SCAM EXPOSEDAs Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa fights for political survival in Karnataka, new evidence of corruption and nepotism have emerged from a deal that allegedly saw his family members receiving prime property near Bangalore at inexplicably low prices.
Here's how. In October 2010, Mr Yeddyurappa denotified five acres of land near the Bangalore airport, intended to house the city's next IT hub. This land had been acquired cheaply by the government from a farmer, D Inneshappa. He demanded it be returned to him.
One month later, Mr Inneshappa sold three acres of the land to BG Channappa. After twenty days, Mr Channappa sold the same land to Davaligiri Property Developers Private Limited, which is owned by the Chief Minister's sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijendra. For Rs. 2.65 crore, they acquired land worth Rs. 65 crore. They then sold one acre of the same land at huge profits to a mining company.
Mr Yeddyurappa's sons are also directors of the company run by Mr Channappa.
The transaction was routed through other companies in an apparent bid to conceal that the Chief Minister's sons were getting a sweetheart deal. Mr Channappa seems to have served as a front.
This is not the only case where Mr Yeddyurappa has been accused of using his office to make land acquired by the government available to his family.
But this particular transaction was also noted in the report on illegal mining prepared by Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta or ombudsman of Karnataka. Mr Hegde's report indicts the Chief Minister and his family for inappropriate links with mining companies. A part of this land, Mr Hegde finds, was sold by the Chief Minister's sons to South West Mining Company at 10 times the market price. The inference is that the company agreed to the sky-high prices in return for valuable mining leases from the Karnataka government.