New Delhi, Oct. 24: L.K. Advani has decided to go ahead with a scheduled public meeting in Bangalore but the dais has to be free of any “dubious” presence.
The BJP veteran’s decision to address the October 30 rally in the Karnataka capital came after Bangalore (South) MP and party general secretary Ananth Kumar pushed strongly for it, sources said.
But Advani, now on a Jan Chetna yatra against the UPA/Congress’s “corruption”, has reportedly directed state leaders to ensure that not a single “dubious” person shares the dais with him.
At least one tainted leader wouldn’t be there when Advani takes the stage on Sunday.
Former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, now in judicial custody for his alleged role in a land scam, has withdrawn his plea for interim bail that a court was to hear today.
Yeddyurappa wanted to spend Diwali with his family, a BJP source said. “But he very kindly thought that he should do our great leader a massive favour by staying put in jail. If he was out on bail, Advani and Ananth Kumar would have had to worry about whether he should be present on the stage with them or not.”
Yeddyurappa will move an application for regular bail next month.
Sources said home minister R. Ashok and industries minister Murugesh Nirani — who, like Yeddyurappa, were indicted by the Lokayukta — had been asked to quit before Advani’s Bangalore meeting.
Karnataka BJP sources, incensed with Advani’s directive to the state unit to clean up its act before his “rath” rolls into the state, wondered why the same yardstick didn’t apply to Kumar, the yatra’s principal strategist and a constant fixture on the motorised chariot.
In 2007, the Centre had ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) while investing Rs 14,500 crore in bonds under Kumar during the NDA regime.
The scam came to light in 2005 when the Supreme Court gave the Centre six weeks to place before it a Central Vigilance Commission report on the investments.
Among the charges was “undue favour” showed by Hudco officials in disbursing credit to an “ineligible firm with a bad past record and doubtful financial viability”.
Last Saturday, chief minister Sadanand Gowda and state BJP president Y.S. Eshwarappa told the party’s national chief Nitin Gadkari that under the “prevailing circumstances”, it would be “impolitic” for Advani to hold a meeting in Bangalore.
However, it is believed that RSS national joint secretary Dattatreya Hosabale — said to be close to Kumar — publicly criticised Yeddyurappa on Sunday. His remarks were interpreted as a cue for Advani to go ahead with the Bangalore meeting.
Hosabale, who is also from Karnataka, has a long-standing rivalry with Yeddyurappa that goes back to when they both worked for the Sangh in the state.
Gadkari later instructed BJP leaders in Karnataka to make plans for the Bangalore meeting. Eshwarappa issued a formal statement to all MPs, MLAs and party officials to mobilise a “grand crowd”.
Privately, sources admitted that with Yeddyurappa in the cooler and more ministers getting rapped by the ombudsman, the cadres were in no mood to host Advani’s road show. “Our fear is it might morph into a show of strength between the Yeddyurappa faction and Kumar’s men,” a source said.
