A day after he triggered a storm by demanding removal of the controversial Reddy brothers as Karnataka ministers,Governor H R Bhardwaj on Wednesday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and is learnt to have broached the topic. Sources said the Governor sought the use of an appropriate forum by the Centre to ensure that the corrupt ministers were removed. With the Governor turning on the heat,the BJP top brass went into a huddle,holding a meeting for three hours at party chief Nitin Gadkaris residence. Sources said the leadership is divided over whether it should shield the powerful G Janardhana Reddy (Tourism Minister) and G Karunakara Reddy (Revenue Minister),with some leaders feeling that the illegal mining charges against them were proving to be an embarrassment to the party. Apart from Chidambaram,Bhardwaj called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Though he refused to divulge details,sources said he conveyed his views on the illegal mining affair to the Home Minister. Sources said Bhardwaj made it clear that the continuation of the Reddy brothers as ministers was untenable since there was a clear conflict of interest. Since the Centre cannot intervene in such a matter,he felt it should use an appropriate forum to ensure their ouster. He also wanted the Centre to impress upon the Yeddyurappa government to allow Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde to function freely. At the BJP meeting,attended by L K Advani,Sushma Swaraj,Arun Jaitley,Venkaiah Naidu,Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi among others,the unanimous view was that the Governor was acting beyond the purview of his constitutional powers and the matter should be taken to the President. But there were differences on how far the party should go in backing the ministers. Sources said Gadkari was upset that some central leaders,known to be close to the Bellary brothers,had overstated their value to the party in terms of the support they enjoyed. There was also a view that the BJP should not be seen defending the corruption charges against them,especially when it had made an issue of the 2G spectrum scandal and the IPL scam to target the UPA government. After the core group meeting,senior leader Ananth Kumar criticised Bhardwaj: A Governor should not be acting in tandem with any political party,more so the Congress. We hope the President will take cognizance of the matter and give suitable advice to him.
