Karnataka   

Drop protest plan, Thakur tells BJP

Rameshwar Thakur

BANGALORE: Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Tuesday reportedly advised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to cancel their “Raj Bhjavan chalo” agitation, scheduled for Wednesday, against the delay in inviting the party leader B.S. Yediyurappa to form the Government.

But the BJP leaders stuck to their stand and told him that the agitation would go on as per the schedule. However, as a matter of courtesy, the party decided to change the venue of the protest from Raj Bhavan to the place in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue on Mahatma Gandhi Road.

According to sources in the BJP, the Governor’s office invited the BJP leaders to meet Governor soon after the party submitted a memorandum to him in which it had dropped hints of launching a protest if the Raj Bhavan did not send a report to the Centre regarding steps to invite Mr. Yediyurappa to form the Government within 24 hours.

The Governor was learnt to have referred to a report from the police which had indicated that a large number of party workers might take part in the proposed protest. The Governor wondered if such a protest was necessary in front of the Raj Bhavan.

The BJP sources said the party leaders made it clear to him that they were not in a position to cancel the protest as it had already been planned. They assured him that it would be held in a peaceful manner. They told him that the protest was not personally intended against him or the Raj Bhavan.

Now, the protest would be held in front of the Mahatma Gandhi Statue. The party leaders claim that nearly one lakh party workers would take part in the protest. Arrangements were being made to bring party supporters from Bangalore city and the five nearby districts of Bangalore Urban and Rural, Kolar, Tumkur and Ramanagaram.

The party think tank had decided to convert the protest rally into a victory rally if the Governor extended an invitation to Mr. Yediyurappa to form the Government by Wednesday.

Interestingly, the three prominent leaders — B.S. Yediyurappa, D. V. Sadananda Gowda and party national general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar — are not taking part in the protest as they left for Delhi to be part of a delegation of party MPs and Central unit leaders which will meet President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday to appeal to her to take steps to install a popular government headed by Mr. Yediyurappa. In their absence, party central leader Sushma Swaraj would take part in the protest.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Yediyurappa visited the Padmanabhanagar residence of Janata Dal (Secular) president H. D. Deve Gowda and held discussions with him for 40 minutes. Later, that party’s State president Merajuddin Patel came to the residence of Mr. Yediyurappa and addressed a joint press conference with BJP State unit president D. V. Sadananda Gowda.

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