Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) Janata Dal-Secular chief H.D. Deve Gowda Wednesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of a private trust owned by family members of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, leading to noisy protests from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to which he belongs.

The BJP members interrupted Deve Gowda, forcing Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the house briefly during zero hour.

The former prime minister said the private trust had received several crores of rupees as donations from industrial houses and demanded a probe into its affairs.

He raised the issue amidst the din created by the BJP members, who had trooped towards the speaker’s podium.

Earlier, as soon as Meira Kumar called out Deve Gowda’s name to raise the issue for which he had given notice, BJP members were on their feet, creating a ruckus and rushing to the Speaker’s podium.

They did not let Deve Gowda speak, prompting him to retort: “This house cannot be run by the opposition leader due to her numerical strength. We have every right to speak in the house.” He was referring to Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj.

Disapproving of the BJP protest, Gowda said: “Is this house at the mercy of these people?”

He was supported by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

With Meira Kumar’s request to the BJP members to let Deve Gowda speak going in vain, she adjourned the house for 15 minutes.

Deve Gowda has been campaigning against Yeddyurappa on the private trust issue and his son and former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had alleged that the trust had accepted Rs.27.18 crore from a sister organisation of an industrial house.

The Congress too has attacked Yeddyurappa over the issue, alleging Prerana Educational and Social Trust had received the donations on a “quid pro quo” basis.

The trust is based in the chief minister’s home district of Shimoga, about 280 km from Bangalore.

The BJP and Yeddyurappa have dismissed the allegations.