Deve Gowda defends Bhardwaj's move

Addressing reporters here, he said 10 of the 11 BJP MLAs, who had demanded the change of Yeddyurappa's leadership since October last year, suddenly made a U-turn and started referring to the chief minister as an “angel”.

“What's the deal (between the BJP and these MLAs)?... This was sufficient ground for the Governor to make the recommendation”, he added.

Gowda, who later met Bhardwaj at Raj Bhavan and greeted him on his 74th birthday, said Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah and the chief minister had no moral right to continue in their offices following the Supreme Court strictures against them.

The BJP parliamentary board should have immediately asked Yeddyurappa to step down and should have chosen a new leader to rule the State for next two years. “If the BJP had removed Yeddyurappa, the question of imposing the President’s Rule would not have arisen,” he stated.

The Yeddyurappa Government came to power through ‘Operation Lotus’. “The culture of poaching MLAs of the Opposition parties has become a cancer, which is eating into the vitals of the democratic system. As many as 17 MLAs of the Opposition parties have been poached so far. Is it a good trend in democracy? Constitutional experts should analyse this aspect before commenting on the Governor’s decision,” Gowda suggested.

He said the BJP went to the extent of humiliating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Parliament over 2G, CWG and Adarsh scams, but was adopting double standards when it came to the charges faced by Yeddyurappa by not acting against him.

He said he had written to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister expressing his view on the Governor’s recommendation.