Secretary of the Dakshina Kannada district unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) B. Madhava said on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party high command had lost control over its Karnataka unit by allowing a scam-tainted B.S. Yeddyurappa Government to continue.
He was speaking at a political convention titled “Save Democracy” organised by the CPI(M) Udupi district unit here.
Mr. Madhava said that such was the massive level of corruption prevailing in Karnataka that people now felt embarrassed when they went to other States. “Mr. Yeddyurappa is a bad Chief Minister of a very bad party,” he said.
He said that Mr. Yeddyurappa had virtually threatened the BJP high command when it sought his resignation as Chief Minister. A responsible political party would have thrown a leader mired in so many scams out. It would have gone to people and sought fresh mandate. But that was not the case with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP had not got a majority in the 2008 Assembly elections. Hence it sought the support of six independent MLAs to form the Government. But it did not trust these independent MLAs as they did not belong to the Sangh Parivar. Hence they launched the infamous “Operation Lotus”.
But ever since it came to power, the BJP Government in Karnataka was dogged by scams.
The judicial probe launched by the B.S. Yeddyurappa Government into the land scams since 1994 was “an eyewash”. Everyone knew that the reports of such inquiries were gathering dust, Mr. Madhava said.
The CPI(M) leader, Admar Sripati Acharya, said land scams were the only “achievement” of the B.S. Yeddyurappa Government. A CBI probe was necessary into these scams. “The BJP Government in the State should go, Mr. Yeddyurappa should resign”, he said.
Money was playing an important role in elections. A complete reform of the election system was required, Mr. Acharya said.
CPI(M) Udupi district unit secretary K. Shankar, party leaders P. Vishwanath Rai, Mahabala Voderhobli and V. Chandrashekhar were present.
