Karnataka out of BJP's anti-graft campaign

Beginning in Delhi on December 22, the BJP and its NDA partners have planned a series of rallies to “expose” the UPA-II over its alleged involvement in an array of mega scams, including the 2G spectrum allocation scam which paralysed an entire session of Parliament.

Apart from Delhi, massive public meetings are scheduled in Mumbai, Patna, Jaipur, Bhopal, Jammu, Ludhiana, Rohtak, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai. But Bangalore is missing from this list.

It appears that the BJP leadership has deliberately skipped Karnataka from the itinerary in view of the embarrassing details that have recently tumbled out of the closet about a number of alleged land scams involving state Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, his family members and some ministerial colleagues.

So much so, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has countered the BJP leadership’s allegations about the 2G scam by challenging it to act against its own government in Karnataka.

Bangalore did not figure in the list of venues for the anti-graft rallies since investigations were currently on into the allegation of corruption and nepotism against the Karnataka chief minister, said a party source, adding that an internal inquiry by the party into the matter was also underway.

When persisted with the query, a senior party leader quipped mysteriously: “Let the dust settle down”. While BJP patriarch L K Advani maintained that the party was in the process of solving the Karnataka issue, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley maintained that “the party is yet to take a final view.” 

BJP leaders, however, admit that NDA’s no-holds-barred attack against the Congress-ruled-UPA on the issue of corruption has been blunted because of “the fault within” - an obvious reference to the allegations of corruption that has hit the BJP government in Karnataka. To add to their embarrassment, journalist-turned-BJP leader Arun Shourie has recently lashed out at the party and declared that the BJP and the Congress were the two-sides of the same coin.

Through the planned rallies, the BJP-led NDA wants to take the issue of corruption in the UPA government “to the people”.