BENGALURU: Steadfast on its decision to go on a two-day overnight protest against the sale of land to JSW in Ballari, the BJP refused to budge even after the cabinet decided to stall the deal and refer it to a subcommittee. State BJP president BS Yeddyurappa was joined by MLAs, MLCs, MPs, office bearers and supporters of the BJP, as he kickstarted the protest on Friday morning. Leaders of the BJP took turns to accuse the coalition government of receiving kickbacks for selling ore-rich land worth crores of rupees at throwaway prices.
“They have already made up their minds to sell the land to Jindal. The cabinet’s decision to refer the same to a sub-committee is just a tactic to buy them more time. We have no issues with continuing the lease but selling land worth `3,000 crore at throwaway prices shouldn’t be allowed.
Why the hurry to sell this land as soon as the Lok Sabha elections have concluded? It is suspicious,” Yeddyurappa told Express. Earlier in the day, the leader of opposition in the Karnataka Legislative assembly tweeted, “Karnataka government’s fishy behaviour to sell few thousands of acres of land to Jindal hints at a massive scam. Is Congress trying to make up for all the losses in the Lok Sabha elections?”
A host of BJP leaders including deputy leader of opposition Govind Karjol, MPs Shobha Karandlaje and B Y Raghavendra, office bearers and legislators of the BJP K S Eshwarappa, C T Ravi, C N Ravi Kumar, Arvind Limbavali as well as B Sriramulu, who were mired in a controversy after sharing a stage with Naveen Jindal, even as his party expressed its outrage over the land deal, participated in the protest.
“We have nothing against Jindal but this government’s decision to sell that land is not acceptable,” said Yeddyurappa. He added that the party was thinking of taking the legal course. On Friday, leaders, including Yeddyurappa decided to sleep at the protest venue and continue the sit-in on Saturday as well.