Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Congress on Wednesday slammed main opposition BJP’s handling of its former Karnataka chief minister BS Yedyurappa’s jail theatrics and the preferential treatment being given to him by the state authorities.
“Like the five-star rath yatra (by LK Advani), it is a five-star jail yatra. BJP had all along supported his attempts to remain outside jail", party spokesman Abhishek
Singhvi said while addressing a press conference in the national capital.
Taking a dig at Yeddyurappa, he said such types of occasional visits to jail were allowed only to the "lucky" ones and not to the common people. "Will the chief minister visit the jail so often to meet any common man?” he said.
The Congress leader said Yeddyurappa’s implication in a land denotification case in Bangalore, allegedly favouring his associates and family, has exposed BJP’s immorality and double standard.
“BJP’s handling of Yeddyurappa’s jail hopping is hypocritical. I want to ask why the state authorities are giving him a preferential treatment in jail. Only people with good fortune like Yeddy can afford to get a five-star treatment while in jail.”
“Yeddyurappa feigned illness to avoid being sent to jail. BJP is also shedding crocodile tears on the issue and expects the country to believe what it says. This is nothing but trying to fool the people of this nation and it deserves to be either condemned or laughed at or both, " Singhvi added.
"This is the CM who was reluctant to leave office and when he left, made a lot of noise and drama," said the Congress spokesperson, adding, “The BJP is not practising what it is preaching.
The reaction from the Congress party came hours after a visibly upset Yeddyurappa was shifted back to Parappana Agrahara Jail from the government-run Victoria Hospital.
Yeddyurappa voluntarily got himself discharged from the hospital this morning after reports said he was “hurt” by senior party leader LK Advani’s remarks on him.
According to TV channels, Advani’s remarks on Tuesday that corruption is weakening the party may have hurt Yeddyurappa, who was on Saturday sent to judicial custody till October 22 after his bail was rejected by a special Lokayukta court in connection with illegal land denotification cases.
TV channels also said that speculative media reports on Yeddyurappa’s health, claiming the former CM was trying to stay out of jail, have also “upset” the BJP leader.
State Housing Minister V Somanna was quoted as saying that Yeddyurappa was hurt and wanted to return to jail.
Advani had yesterday virtually admitted embarrassment on account of Yeddyurappa`s arrest, saying it will be difficult to win against the "corrupt" Congress if his party too is bedevilled by similar weaknesses.
Addressing a press conference, Advani initially parried a question on Yeddyurappa but later admitted that the party had suffered embarrassment on account of former Karnataka CM’s arrest.
After his bail plea was rejected on Saturday, Yeddyurappa surrendered before the court and was sent to jail. However, he was shifted to the state-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology early Sunday morning after he complained of chest pain.
On Tuesday, the state-run heart speciality centre discharged the former CM after tests showed show that the condition of his heart was normal and stable, but he then moved to the government-run Victoria Hospital.
The development came hours after the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday deferred till Thursday hearing on his interim bail plea in the land scam case.
Jayadeva Institute Director Dr CN Manjunath had said yesterday that Yeddyurappa suffers from other medical problems like diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, backache and reactive airway disease and Parkinson, besides high sodium levels in the blood and depression.
