By IANS,
Bangalore/New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday sought to play down the row over who made the controversial Reddy brothers ministers in its first-ever government in Karnataka, but the Congress pounced upon the opportunity to mock the party.
Rajnath Singh, who was BJP president when the party formed its first government in Karnataka in May 2008, and Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa endorsed senior party leader Sushma Swaraj’s claim that she had no role in it.
“My consent was there. After that, the decision was taken,” Rajnath Singh told reporters in New Delhi and later at Hubli in north Karnataka, after a news magazine quoted Sushma Swaraj as blaming party colleague Arun Jaitley for making Reddy brothers ministers in spite of their alleged involvement in illegal iron ore mining in the state.
“To say that Sushma-ji or Arun-ji is responsible for this, I don’t think it is right because whatever happened, I was the president then. It happened with my consent,’ Rajnath Singh said.
“If someone wants to fix responsibility, they can fix the responsibility on me. I don’t hold Sushma-ji and Arun-ji responsible for it. There were some political compulsions that we had to take this decision (of making them ministers).”
“For the first time, the BJP government was being formed in south and the party received full-fledged majority. We also wanted that a stable government is formed, which should be Karnataka people-friendly, and should be able to develop Karnataka,” Singh said.
He also accepted that in 2009, when the Reddy brothers revolted against Yeddyurappa, he had sought the services of Sushma Swaraj to talk to the mining barons to end the crisis.
Yeddyurappa, against whom the Reddy brothers had revolted in October 2009, said in Hubli, about 360 km from Bangalore, late Friday that it was his decision on whom to induct in his government. “Cabinet making is my prerogative. None recommended them (the Reddy brothers),” he said.
Karnataka BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa also told reporters in Bangalore Saturday that it was “Yeddyurappa’s decision to make Reddy brothers ministers.”
Of the three brothers two are ministers – G. Janardhana, tourism, and elder G. Karunakara handles revenue portfolio. The younger, G. Somashekara, is assembly member from iron-ore rich Bellary, the political base of the three brothers.
In an interview to a news magazine, Sushma Swaraj denied being their mentor and shifted the accountability to Jaitley, who was the state in-charge at the time, Yeddyurappa and the then central observers from the party, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar.
“There cannot be a bigger lie. Let me tell you the truth, I have no hand in the political making of the Bellary brothers. I had nothing to do in making them ministers or building their stature as political leaders,” Swaraj said in her interview to Outlook magazine.
The Congress seized the opportunity to hit at the BJP, its bette noire, saying the “Neros of BJP” fiddle in Delhi as Karnataka burns, and the party would never come back to power.
“Swaraj’s assertions once again underscore the fundamental reality of BJP that money talks and Yeddyurappa and Reddy walk. While Karnataka burns with corruption, the Neros of BJP fiddle in Delhi,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters in New Delhi.
“In the last elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boasted of a leader who was in the contention as a prime ministerial candidate since 2004. And by the time the year 2014 approaches, the waiting list is bound to increase further. Because the Bharatiya Janata Party is unable to understand the fact that they will never come in power,” he added.
The latest row to hit BJP about its government in Karnataka has come three days ahead of Yeddyurappa completing three years in office.
Yeddyurappa just survived in office after the central government rejected May 22 Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s recommendation to dismiss his government in view of the Supreme Court rap over the way 16 rebel law makers were disqualified ahead of a trust vote in October last year.