State BJP leaders will meet Governor H R Bhardwaj on Friday to seek his intervention in the dismissal of Minister of State for Infrastructure Development, Santosh Lad, from the State Cabinet
Addressing a press conference in Bangalore, former chief ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar said that the BJP will urge the Governor to direct Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to drop Lad, a partner in VS Lad and Sons, from the Cabinet. The mining company is allegedly involved in illegal mining activities as per the reports of the Lokayukta.
They said if Siddaramaiah failed to drop Lad from the Cabinet, then the party would have no option but to take the fight to the streets across the State. Gowda wondered why Siddaramaiah was hesitating to drop Lad, when there was prime facie evidence that VS Lad and Sons was into illegal mining.
Gowda recalled that Siddaramaiah, when he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, had led a ‘padayatra’ to Bellary to protest against illegal mining. “What happened to that commitment?” he asked.
On Ananthamurthy
BJP leaders have come down strongly on litterateur U R Ananthamurthy’s statement that he would not live in the country if Narendra Modi became the prime minister.
BJP State president Pralhad Joshi said it was a matter of time before Modi became prime minister and wished Ananthamurthy a long life to witness the occasion.
Gowda said the comment was not befitting a Jnanapith awardee. “Nobody who believes in a democratic set-up would make such statement,” he said. “If Modi is elected by the people as prime minister, what will he do? Will he hang himself? Will he commit suicide?”