As the illegal mining issue continued to rock the Karnataka Assembly,both the Houses saw no business on Tuesday. In the evening,for the second day,Opposition legislators tucked in for a part of the night inside the Assembly for a sleep-in dharna against the BJP government. While only Congress and JD(S) MLAs had spent the night on the Assembly precincts on Monday night,after feasting on a dinner of chicken-biryani,on Tuesday they were joined by their Upper House counterparts. Attempts by legislature authorities to hound them out by turning up the air-conditioning on Monday had proved futile. Even former prime minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda put in an appearance on Tuesday,visiting the Assembly after 14 years. Later,he shook hands and addressed a press conference with former close associate but current bete noire S Siddararamaiah,who is the Congress Leader of the Opposition. Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa must decide what is more important the continuation of ministers linked to illegal mining or the protection of the countrys natural resources, Gowda said. He added that he would appeal to the conscience of L K Advani,who had earlier persuaded Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde to continue in office after the latter had resigned over the government not giving him enough powers to tackle corruption. Gowda also demanded a probe by the CBI into the allegations against the Reddy brothers. However,Yeddyurappa,widely seen as enjoying the campaign against the Reddys who had tried to dethrone him last year has been resolute about the CBI not being called in. His disinclination to put a speedy end to the Opposition protests is also being seen as a subtle indication of the consolidation of forces opposed to the brothers.
