'He will rule from jail,' says Kumaraswamy on BS Yeddyurappa

Bangalore, Jul 26: With Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa's fate in the doldrums after being named in the leaked Lokayukta report on illegal mining in the state, the Opposition and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has raised the pressure to focus on the misdeeds in the Yeddyurappa government.

Speaking in harsh words, Kumaraswamy spoke on BSY, "He is thick-skinned, Mahabhanda (one who sticks to a point and refuses to let go). He will not resign, even if he is found guilty in a court of law and sent to jail. He will rule from jail." On being asked if he thought that Yeddyurappa will resign on his own, HDK relied, "I am 100% sure that Yeddyurappa will not step down of his own, even after he is indicted by the Lokayukta report. If the court found him guilty and sent him to jail, he would continue to be chief minister."

Mincing no words in his tirade against the Karnataka CM, Kumaraswamy added, "People have given me a mandate for a five-year term, I have two more years to go," the chief minister would claim, arguing that the court had not pronounced any judgment on his continuation in office. The only way in which Yeddyurappa can be removed is for the party high command to take a tough stance and send him out. Otherwise, he is an adamant man and will continue in office."

Diverting the fiery rhetoric on the controversy regarding the land denotification controversy, Kumaraswamy stated that Yeddyurappa had received huge donations from mining companies to his sons NGO, the Prerana Education Trust and was prima facie guilty in the huge row that has erupted in the state. He commented, "What else would one want as legitimate ground to remove the chief minister? In the 2G spectrum scam, once it appeared, prima facie, that then Union ministers A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran were guilty, the UPA at the Centre shunted them out."

Kumaraswamy also engaged in a veiled attack on the phone tapping scandal involving Lokayukta chief Santosh Hegde and said, "The chief minister would not issue written orders for tapping. He would instruct such a move, orally, and the state intelligence would act on his instructions."

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