Stepping up his attack on Governor H.R. Bhardwaj for his sanction to prosecute him, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Monday firmly demanded that he should be recalled and said the Bharatiya Janata Party was contemplating filing a defamation case against him for his outbursts against the government.
Levelling a fresh charge against the Governor, Mr. Yeddyurappa said, “We have information that all the petitions submitted to him against the government were drafted in Raj Bhavan”.
“It is better for him (the Governor) and also for the State that Bhardwaj looks at a State, which is convenient for him to live and go there,” Mr. Yeddyurappa, whose government and the Governor have been having a running battle for long, told reporters.
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that ever since Mr. Bhardwaj assumed the office of the Governor, he has been relentlessly working to tarnish the image of the BJP government.
The Chief Minister said Mr. Bhardwaj should tender an unconditional apology for his “offensive remarks” made against his government and blamed the Governor for the “losses the State suffered during the January 22 bandh”.
“The provocative remarks of the Governor are responsible for the bandh, which the people voluntarily supported and observed,” he said.
The BJP was contemplating whether it can file a defamation case against the Governor for his outbursts against the elected government and other options to wage a legal battle against him, he said.
To a pointed query on whether he would challenge legally the sanction given by the Governor to prosecute him, Mr. Yeddyurappa said, “Our party elders will decide the issue in about two days.”
Mr. Yeddyurappa also mounted an attack on former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his family members and said they were yet to respond to his open challenge for a public debate on the land scams they allegedly indulged in when they were in power.
“I will not allow them to escape. I will expose them. I will present before people the illegal allotment of land to their relatives by Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy. Kumaraswamy has also granted mining licences to his relatives,” Mr. Yeddyurappa alleged.
