Bid on to malign Lokayukta report?

Hegde's report, which is expected to decide Yeddyurappa's fate, is still not ready; CM's camp looking for ways to have it rejected by government

While the Lokayukta report plays the key deciding factor in the fate of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, his camp is scheming to malign it so that the government can reject it in case it is scathing against the CM.
Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde was expected to submit the report yesterday to coincide with Yeddyurappa's return from Mauritius. According to sources in the Lokayukta, his staff is working around the clock and he is trying to submit the same on Wednesday, which is the final deadline.



Biding time?
Amidst the tumult created by the leak of the report, the BJP high command has apparently decided to wait for its official submission before deciding on the future of Yeddyurappa, who is expected to be indicted."The party is nothing to do with the leakage and the high command is seriously considering some options in case Yeddyurappa is indicted. Let us wait for the report to come out officially," said a senior leader in the BJP.

In a bid to sail through the turbulence, the Yeddyurappa camp is trying to make a case against the varsity of the report, so that the government could reject it, and the Lokayukta's fluctuating statement on S M Krishna's
indictment is seemingly coming handy.

Quick change
Hegde had confirmed that Krishna was named in the report when it was leaked to the media last week, but the next day he said the external affairs minister's name had not been mentioned."Everyone knows that the illegal mining started when S M Krishna was the CM. The first report of the Lokayukta had mentioned former CM N Dharam Singh. Now, if the Congress leaders get a clean chit, what does it mean? We won't allow the Yeddyurappa government to fall prey to politics played by the Congress and the JD(S)," said Irrigation Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is close to Yeddyurappa.

Late reaction
The loyalist is using Hegde's revelation that BJP leaders approached him with a request to delete Yeddyurappa's name from the report to his telephone tapping allegation. "I wonder why Santosh Hegde kept mum when his phone was tapped three months ago. Why is he now talking about the BJP leaders meeting him some six months ago," said Bommai.

Responding to a question about whether the government would accept or reject the report, Yeddyurappa replied, "I have great respect for Hegde and don't want to comment at this stage. Let him submit the report and then I will see what needs to be done."

Back in action
He conducted a meeting of cabinet colleagues and the party leaders yesterday after returning from Mauritius, where he was holidaying with his family. Later he wrote a letter to Nitin Gadkari, national president of the BJP, asking him to constitute an internal enquiry committee to probe into the allegations made against him and his family. Interestingly, he suggested archrival H N Ananthkumar, MP Bangalore (South), to be one of the members of the enquiry committee. He also wrote to PM Manmohan Singh to send a team to investigate the Lokayukta's telephone tapping allegation. He said he had called a meeting of BJP MPs prior to the monsoon session of the parliament to prepare to defend BJP on the floor of the house against the Congress onslaught.