By IANS,
New Delhi: Congress Wednesday preferred to remain silent on the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) demand for ouster of Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj, whose recommendation for president’s rule in the BJP-ruled state has caused a stir.
Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters here that she had nothing more to add other that what her colleague Manish Tewari said Tuesday on the BJP’s government in Karnataka being “illegal” with a “manufactured majority”.
“It is an illegally manufactured majority, and an illegal government running there. We find it utterly shocking that the chief minister and speaker of Karnataka took no notice of the Supreme Court’s strictures… We have nothing further to add,” she said in reply to queries on the party’s view on the BJP demand for Bhardwaj’s removal.
BJP, which rules Karnataka, claims to have a majority in the state assembly with 121 legislators, after the Supreme Court May 13 struck down the disqualification of 11 BJP legislators in October 2010.
The BJP has maintained that the stand of Bhardwaj on dismissal of the state government headed by B.S. Yeddyurappa was unconstitutional and that he was acting like an activist of an opposition political party in the state.
Asked if Bhardwaj had changed his hostility towards the BJP government and is now appearing conciliatory, Natarajan said, “I am not aware whether he was hostile in the first place or whether he is now conciliatory.”
Bhardwaj had earlier in the day told reporters in Bangalore that Yeddyurappa did enjoy a massive majority and there was no doubt about it.
In the last two days, top BJP leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil demanding rejection of Bhardwaj’s recommendation for president’s rule in the state and demanded his recall.