BANGALORE: Shamed by his own ministerial colleagues, who couldn’t resist from watching hot ‘n’ spicy porn clips on their mobile phones when the Legislative Assembly was in session on Tuesday, a dejected D V Sadananda Gowda was ready to quit in protest.
Sources close to the Chief Minister told Express that the he was hurt after Lakshman Savadi, C C Patil and Krishna Palemar tried their best to hang on to the gaddi, arguing that they had done no wrong.
For the CM these incidents started unfolding after he reached Bangalore from his Kadur tour — around past midnight on Tuesday — when he drove to his former mentor B S Yeddyurappa’s house along with his conscience-keeper-cum-ministerial colleague S Suresh Kumar. The meeting had lasted for two hours.
The CM had by then orders ‘to fire the trio’ from BJP bosses in Delhi. From Yeddyurappa’s house, the CM came and slept only to be woken within an hour by the tainted ministers. A visibly-tired CM came out armed with a laptop and gave a ‘special screening’ of the ‘proof’. The CM had the over-12-minutes-porn clips on his pen drive and played it to the ‘desperate visitors’. Here again he told them that he would quit if they did not resign. “He was firm. He was furious and had made up his mind,” sources said.
The tainted ministers, left with no other choice, offered their resignations on Wednesday morning, which was communicated officially as a ‘voluntary decision’. “I am a husband, father and leader. What moral right do I have if I am cornered by such events? In the last six months I have tried my level best to run this government. How will I face the people of the state now?” the CM told his close aides.
Sources say that the CM, upon hearing of the shameful incident in the Assembly, had sent a message to the party high command that he would not continue in power if his tainted Cabinet colleagues did not resign. Expressing support, the senior BJP leaders asked Gowda to be firm in handling the issue. He was also asked to give regular feedback.
When Express asked the CM to confirm whether he had decided to quit on moral grounds, Gowda said: “I am hurt. I don’t want to say anything.”
When persisted, the CM added, “I am now pulling on with my internal strength.” He refused to divulge any further details.