Cracking the whip, India's right wing Hindu nationalist party BJP yesterday asked its Chief Minister (CM) of the southern state of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa to resign forthwith after an official anti-corruption watchdog indicted him in an illegal iron ore mining scam in the state.
The decision to show Yeddyurappa the door was taken at a meeting of BJP parliamentary board.
"The BJP parliamentary board unanimously felt that there should be a change of the party leadership in Karnataka and it advised Yeddyurappa to resign", BJP chief spokesman Ravishankar Prasad told media persons soon after the parliamentary board meeting at the residence of Gadkari.
He said a new chief minister would be chosen to replace Yeddyurappa tomorrow.
Yeddyurappa had made a last-ditch effort to persuade BJP national leadership to allow him to continue as chief minister when he met Gadkari Wednesday night.
The party's decision came a day after the Karnataka Lokayukta (anti-corruption body) recommended Yeddyurappa's prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act for illegal financial dealings relating to iron ore mining.
The report of the anti-corruption watchdog headed by Justice Santosh Hegde said that a company dealing in iron ore donated Rs 10 crore to a trust managed by Yeddyurappa's family for "reasons other than genuine".
The company bought one acre of land in Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka and India's Silicon Valley, for Rs 20 crore from Yeddyurappa's children.
Besides Yeddyurappa, some other prominent ministers of the BJP government in Karnatka have also been named in the anti-corruption body's report.
"They were claiming all this time that they were not involved in illegal mining but we have enough evidence to prove otherwise", Justice Hegde had told mediapersons in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Source : The Daily Star
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