State News And Discussion - 3

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[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com//1101014/jsp/nation/story_13056517.jsp"]Yeddy edge after court bars rivals[/url]

New Delhi, Oct. 13: Chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa appeared headed for victory in tomorrow’s trial of strength after Karnataka High Court today gave the go-ahead for the floor test and rejected a plea from the disqualified Independents to be allowed to vote.



The order came on a day a BJP delegation led by L.K. Advani met the Prime Minister to demand governor H.R. Bharadwaj’s recall.



The five Independents had also pleaded that their votes be put in a sealed envelope and counted later in case the court stayed their disqualification by Speaker K.G. Bopaiah.

In the afternoon, Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and M. Venkaiah Naidu called on the Prime Minister to demand Bharadwaj’s recall.



Jaitley told reporters that Bharadwaj had failed to “detach himself from his political past”. “Notwithstanding the ministerial offices he held in the past, he was never perceived to be a respecter of democratic and constitutional institutions,” he said.



Jaitley also questioned the governor’s “volte-face”. “If the recommendation for imposing President’s rule under Article 356 was based on good and cogent grounds, how did he implicitly overrule himself within a day?” he asked.



Jaitley said “there should not have been a second (trust) vote” because the Speaker’s ruling on the first one was “conclusive”. “But to avoid a constitutional confrontation, we agreed to face it.”



Asked what the Prime Minister’s response was, he said: “He heard us, that’s all.”



In Bangalore, Bopaiah told marshals not to allow non-members, “including disqualified MLAs” into the House tomorrow for the sake of “smooth proceedings”, PTI quoted him telling reporters.