The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government decided late on Sunday night to reject Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj's report recommending the dismissal of the Yeddyurappa-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in that State.
This decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), which met immediately after the UPA celebrated the second year of its second consecutive term in power.
However, the CCPA has asked the Union Home Ministry to send an advisory to the Karnataka government, bringing to its notice the issues that had been mentioned by the Governor of Karnataka, in the hope that it will take note of the comments. The Governor's report had followed a Supreme Court order, reversing the Karnataka High Court's decision of disqualifying 11 BJP rebel legislators and five independents, ahead of a trust vote in the Assembly.
These developments come in the wake of the Karnataka State unit of the Congress bringing immense pressure on the Centre to act on the Governor's report: over the last two days, senior State leaders including Legislature Party Leader Sidaramaiah and PCC chief Dr. Parameshwar, held separate meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram, A.K. Antony, and political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, to put across their demand.
Indeed, even at the Prime Minister's dinner on Sunday night, barely an hour before the CCPA meeting, leaders from Karnataka were still lobbying for the dismissal of the Yeddyurappa government.
A party functionary at the dinner, however, told TheHindu : “It will not be possible to act on the report. For one, we don't have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha [to validate President's Rule], and secondly, we have no intention of making a martyr of Mr. Yeddyurappa.”
