By IANS,
Bangalore/New Delhi : The Congress Thursday demanded the immediate resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa after the Lokayukta named him amongst those involved in illegal mining in the state.
“Yeddyurappa has no moral right any more to continue in office,” state Congress chief G. Parameshwara and leader of opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah said in separate press meets.
But the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back. Its spokesperson Prakash Javadekar asked in New Delhi what the Congress had done on the findings of the Delhi Lokayukta against its Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on the Shunglu panel report probing irregularities in the Commonwealth Games.
He also sought to know the action taken on the Delhi Lokayukta recommendation against minister Rajkumar Chauhan in another case.
The Shunglu panel has “indicted the Dikshit government in the Commonwealth Games and Delhi Lokayukta has recommended to the president (of India) that action should be taken against her minister Rajkumar Chauhan in the Tivoli Garden case. Nothing has been done in the two cases. Let Congress first act on these”, Javadekar said.
As the battle lines were drawn between the two major political parties, the Reddy brothers and two other BJP ministers named in the Hegde report denied any involvement in illegal mining or export but said they were ready for any probe.
The Reddy brothers are Tourism Minister G. Janardhana and his elder sibling, Revenue Minister G. Karunakara. The other two ministers named in the report are their close associate and Health minister B. Sriramlu and a Yeddyurappa confidant V. Somanna, civil supplies minister.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Anil Lad too contested Hegde’s conclusions and said his firm was not into any illegal mining.
The other major political figure mentioned in the report, to be submitted by Hegde Friday, H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular said his action in granting license to two firms for mining had not resulted in any financial loss to the state.
“I will wait for the full report to be officially out to give my detailed response to it,” Kumaraswamy, who was chief minister of the JD-S-BJP coalition in 2006-07, told reporters in Bangalore.
Yeddyurappa, the main character in the unfolding drama, is away in Mauritius on holiday with his family members. He is expected back July 24.
Besides Yeddyurappa, his two sons are mentioned in the report as having benefited from illegal mining.