Bangalore, Feb 8: Bowing to the directives of the party central leadership, three BJP ministers in Karnataka today resigned after they were engulfed in a row over watching sleazy clippings during the Assembly proceedings.
A day after the incident caused huge embarrassment to the BJP government, all the three tainted ministers were summoned to the party office and were asked to submit their resignation after a meeting of the senior leaders presided over by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda.Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj later accepted the resignation of the three tainted ministers.
Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi, Minister for Women and Child Development C C Patil and Minister for Ports and Science and Technology Krishna Palemar announced after a meeting with top leaders that they have decided to quit.
“We don't want the party and the government to face further embarrassment. All of us have decided to resign from the ministry”, Savadi told reporters outside the BJP office.
Savadi and Patil demanded that the Speaker of the state assembly K G Bopaiah institute a probe into the issue of watching the porno video footage and expressed confidence that “they would come clean from the allegations”.
Palemar, another minister, who had to pay a price for allegedly providing the blue film clippings to Savadi said he was contemplating legal course over the issue.
Savadi and Patil were caught yesterday while they were allegedly viewing the porno video footage inside the state assembly, an incident that battered the image of the Sadananda Gowda Government and BJP, evoking widespread condemnation across the state.
Under the directions of BJP National President Nitin Gadkari, Gowda today held a meeting with the state unit Party President K S Eswarappa, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, senior ministers Jagadish Shettar and Govind Karjol in the party office and decided to ask the three ministers to put in their papers.
Savadi and Patil said they would submit their resignation to Gowda and request him to accept it.
Savadi and Patil, who had to demit the ministry under cloud, blamed the media for blowing the incident out of proportion.
Savadi said they were resigning to save the party and the Government from embarrassment. “We will appeal to the Chief Minister, Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa to accept our resignation.
“We will appeal to the Speaker in the Assembly to order an enquiry to uncover the truth. We are ready to face any enquiry”, Savadi said, adding “Media is projecting us as criminals all over the state”.
To a question, Savadi said they are quitting voluntarily and there was no pressure on them to do so.
Palemar said he does not know how to pass on such clips, adding, his innocence would be proved in an inquiry. “When there is an allegation, it's not correct to continue as Minister”, he said. “There is a wrong perception (on the issue) and let there be an inquiry”.
In a bizarre defence, Savadi had last night said the clip showed some men dancing with a woman and then gang-raping her.
The rapists were later arrested by the police and then stoned in public, Savadi said, adding, he was watching it in the context of a discussion on “rave party” (in an island off Udupi) earlier in the Legislative Council.
