Upping the ante, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday set a 24-hour deadline to the United Progressive Alliance government to reject Governor H R Bhardwaj's recommendation to impose President's Rule in Karnataka or face a nation-wide agitation against it and him.
"If the Centre does not act within the coming 24 hours, the BJP will be compelled to launch a nation-wide agitation both against the Central government as well as the Governor," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told a news conference in Bengaluru. "We will wait till tomorrow evening," he added.
Triggering a political crisis, Bhardwaj had sent a special report to the Centre last Sunday recommending President's rule and keeping the assembly in suspended animation, citing breakdown in constitutional mechanism.
Naidu alleged that in the last six days, the state government was not allowed to function by the Governor and the "inordinate delay" by the Centre (in action on his report) was also affecting the interest of the state and people.
"Any further delay will be a negation of the people's mandate...goes against the spirit of federal structure. We will not tolerate this," he said.
Naidu said the Karnataka BJP has already resorted to demonstrations which have evoked a "huge response", adding, he would like to warn the Centre against delaying its action because of its "indecision, internal differences".
Severely criticising the "repeated misadventures" to oust the democratically-elected popular government in the state, he alleged that the Congress-led UPA at the Centre is the real "suthradhari" (director) and the Governor only a "pathradhari" (actor) in this "shameful drama".
"The script was written by some Congress leaders in Delhi and executed by Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru," Naidu alleged.
"The history sheet of extra constitutionalism by the Governor makes him unfit to occupy a constitutional office and the BJP demands that he be recalled immediately."
Accusing the Governor of virtually converting Raj Bhavan into Congress Bhavan, he said, "It (Raj Bhavan) has become an epicentre of political conspiracies".
"The Governor is virtually acting like an opposition leader and making all attempts to destablise the democratically elected government," Naidu said.
