Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday sought the cancellation of foreign trips planned by around 100 legislators in their capacity as members of various standing committees of the State legislature.
“The State is reeling under severe drought. This is not the time for a foreign trip. Legislators should concentrate on monitoring drought relief work and mitigating the sufferings of the people,” Yeddyurappa told reporters at the BJP office in Bangalore.
However, secretariat sources said there was no move to cancel the trip as legislators were keen to go ahead with the junket. The foreign junket will cost the State exchequer more than Rs 15 crore.
War of words
The war of words between the two former BJP chief ministers continued on Tuesday with Yeddyurappa daring D V Sadananda Gowda to spell out specific instances of corruption during the former’s tenure.
“Gowda is a former chief minister and I believe he will issue statements with a sense of responsibility. It is because of such statements that Advani has a misconception about the BJP in the State”, Yeddyurappa said.
Gowda on Tuesday had endorsed senior BJP leader L K Advani’s comments on BJP “bungling” in the State, stating that the ruling party had to face several embarrassing issues like illegal mining, denotification and elected representatives landing in jail.
Yeddyurappa reiterated that he was pained by Advani’s comments on the state of affairs in the Karnataka unit of the party.
Letter to Advani?
Later in the day, there were rumours that Yeddyurappa had written a strongly worded letter to Advani on his blog comments. Yeddyurappa, in the letter, is learnt to have stated that Advani should have made efforts to know the ground realities before making any comments. However, Yeddyurappa was not immediately available for comments.
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