With less than a 24 hours to go before the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government faces trust vote on the floor of the Legislative assembly, Public Works Department Minister H.D. Revanna, who has been accused of interfering in decisions beyond his department, on Wednesday appealed to the rebel legislators — now holed up in a hotel in Mumbai — to return.
“I have not hurt any legislator. If I have hurt, I apologise. If I have committed mistake please come back. I am willing to apologise,” he told presspersons in Bengaluru on Wednesday, adding: “I have not intervened in transfers in any other department. My work and influence is restricted to Hassan district and Public Works Department.”
The three rebel legislators — Muniratna (Rajarajeshwari Nagar), S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpura) and Byrathi Basavaraj (K.R. Puram) — had expressed unhappiness over the functioning of Mr. Revanna while Housing Minister Nagraj, who defected to the rebel camp on Sunday despite negotiations with senior Congress leaders, also accused the PWD minister of interfering in his work.
Mr. Revanna claimed: “Mr. Nagraj had sought a Superintending Engineer and I deployed one. I did not appoint Housing Secretary.” When his attention was drawn towards Mr. Muniratna’s allegations on not involving city legislators in development works of Bengaluru, he cited two meetings held at Krishna and chaired by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on elevated corridor. “ All city legislators were invited to the meeting.”
When asked if his family’s interference caused Mr. Gopalaiah to rebel, he said “ Let God help him.”
Meanwhile, invoking God several times and thanking the Almighty for all that he had achieved so far, Mr. Revanna also said “This (coalition government) is God’s gift . We will remain as long as it is blessed by God. Why did He bring down the strength (of the coalition) from 118 to 105? We have worked in the government for over an year.” Mr. Revanna also said that he will not blame anybody if the coalition government collapses.
