Beijing, January 24: Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s actions over denotification of land and allotments to his family members were “immoral” and “not proper”, but accused Governor H.R. Bhardwaj of “working under the direction of the Congress party” by singling out the actions of the BJP government.
“The BJP, and I, personally feel that denotifying the land for his son, though it is a legal decision, on the ground of morality was not good,” Mr. Gadkari told journalists here as he concluded a five-day goodwill visit, the first by a BJP president to China. “Denotifying the land,” he added, was “not proper” and was “immoral.”
On Friday, Mr. Bhardwaj accorded sanction to prosecute Mr. Yeddyurappa over allegations of denotification of land. The Chief Minister insisted on Friday that he had the support of the BJP leadership, saying there was “no question of his quitting office.”
Even as the BJP president hinted at the party’s displeasure with Mr. Yeddyurappa, he defended the Chief Minister on grounds of legality. “Denotification of land is the privilege and right of a Chief Minister, given by the law. Nothing is wrong with it,” Mr. Gadkari said.
“Politically motivated”
He accused the Governor of ignoring similar actions by Mr. Yeddyurappa’s predecessors and being “politically motivated.” “Before Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy, Dharam Singh and S.M. Krishna exercised this power two times, three times, four times,” he said. “The Governor has never taken any single action against these Ministers because they belonged to the Congress party.”
He added: “The most trusted alliance partner [for the Congress] is the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation]. Now, the trusted partner is the Governor. They are misusing institutions and creating democratic problems in the country.”
During his party-to-party visit to China this week at the invitation of the Communist Party, Mr. Gadkari held talks with officials from the party’s Politburo Standing Committee and International Department.
–Agencies