UNCEREMONIOUS EXIT: Special general body meeting of the Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat, to remove its president Yellappa Karikundi, in progress in Gulbarga on Tuesday.

GULBARGA: President of Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat Yellappa Karikundi was unceremoniously removed from his office through a no-confidence motion moved by his own party members at a special general body meeting convened here on Tuesday. BJP and two independents also supported the decision.

Mr. Karikundi rebelled against the Janata Dal (Secular) leadership and refused to step down to accommodate others in the post as agreed at the time of the election to the post of president and vice-president 13 months back. He was voted out with not even a single member in the 64-member house voting against the motion.

A series of charges were levelled against him including anti-party activities and failure to take up development activities in the panchayat during his 13-month tenure. The main opposition Congress and two independents supporting the party neither supported nor opposed the no-confidence motion. When the voting was taken up 34 members supported the motion while none in the house opposed it.

The no-confidence motion against Mr. Karikundi, who was not present in the house when the voting was taken up, was moved by Gurushant Pattedar and seconded by Suresh Sajjan, both from JD(S). Mr. Pattedar said the main reason for the no-confidence motion against Mr. Karikundi was his failure to take up development activities and involvement in anti-party activities. The house witnessed a scuffle between the Congress and JD(S) members on the no-confidence motion briefly before the voting was taken up. Opposition leader Subash Rathod said the Congress neither supported nor opposed the no-confidence motion. However, Mr. Rathod said the political instability over the question of removing the president and vice-president of the zilla panchayat for the past three months had affected development projects of the panchayat.

Funds released by the Government for development activities and drought relief projects were not used, he said.

Mr. Rathod defended the action of the party leaders helping outgoing president Mr. Karikundi in meeting some of the senior party leaders after Mr. Karikundi sought the party's support against the no-confidence motion proposed to be moved by the JD(S)-Bhartiya Janata Party combine.

Last month, the vice-president Raja Hanumappa Naik had resigned from the post to pave way for BJP's Sridhar Ratnagiri to fill the post. As per the agreement, the president should also have resigned after 10 months in office to accommodate others in the party. However, Mr. Karikundi refused to step down on the plea that there was no written agreement to this effect.

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