Don’t want to be super CM: Yeddy

PTIx

Bangalore, 03 August 2011: In an apparent bid to reject criticism that he wants to rule by proxy by installing D V Sadananda Gowda as his successor, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today asserted he did not want to become “a super CM”.

 

“I don’t want to become a super CM”, he told reporters here as the race for the Chief Minister’s post hotted up ahead of the BJP legislative party meeting slated here tomorrow.

 

Yeddyurappa, who resigned from the post, said he would “obey the orders” of the party and leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani and (party President) Nitin Gadkari, “who are going to guide us.”

As the BJP grapples with the crisis over the successor issue, it appeared that it would be a straight contest between Yeddyurappa’s nominee Gowda and Jagadish Shettar, being propped up by the rival camp led by party national general secretary H N Ananth Kumar and state BJP Chief K S Eshwarappa.

 

Yeddyurappa resigned on Sunday in the wake of Lokayukta report on illegal mining indicting him after much defiance and his exit has led the BJP to another crisis as party leaders try to find a successor with the state unit badly divided.

 

“I am going to tour the State for the welfare of the people, and I don’t have any personal agenda”, Yeddyurappa said. Informing that central observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh would arrive here this evening, he said: “Most probably... unanimously... our leader will be selected (tomorrow), and from day after tomorrow, we will only concentrate on the development of the state.” Yeddyurappa’s comment — that he does not want to become a super CM — comes in the wake of a section of the rival side trying to project that Gowda would be his “puppet” and that Yeddyurappa would pull the strings. 

 

CM in waiting, violates BDA norms:  

 

DV Sadananda Gowda seems to be following in B S Yeddyurappa’s footsteps in more ways than one. The Udupi MP, who is tipped to replace Yeddyurappa as chief minister, has a penchant for land and a disposition to flout the law, much like his mentor.

 

In a blatant violation of the BDA Act, the MP amalgamated two BDA sites and is constructing a five-storey building across both plots. In 2006, Gowda was allotted site No 2B, a 50x80ft site in HSR Layout, Sector 3. 

 

According to information through an RTI application filed by Mirror, Gowda’s application to amalgamate his site with plot No 13B, a neighbouring 50x80ft plot belonging to legislator DN Jeevaraj, was rejected at a BDA meeting. Gowda was informed of the decision on Sept 24, ’09. Both sites were allotted under the CM’s discretionary quota, but the plots have been illegally amalgamated to pave the way for construction of the five-storey building.