Karnataka crisis: Yeddyurappa, BJP MLAs meet President to prove majority

NEW DELHI: Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa paraded all legislators supporting his government before President Pratibha Patil here on Tuesday.

Yeddyurappa arrived at Rashtrapati Bhavan here along with 114 MLAs and five letters of support to prove his majority. One MLA is reportedly in hospital.

BJP stalwarts Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Nadu and scores of party supporters accompanied him.

Yeddyurappa, who arrived here on Monday night, is also expected to demand the recall of governor HR Bhardwaj.

"Governor of Karnataka has been trying to destabilise our government right from beginning. We request President and Prime Minister to save Karnataka, to save democracy by recalling the governor," Yeddyurappa told reporters earlier.

Yeddyurappa had on Sunday shot off a protest letter to President Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union home minister P Chidambaram against the governor Bhardwaj's move to recommend President's rule in Karnataka.

He appealed to them to prevent a constitutional crisis in Karnataka.

The report from Bhardwaj comes in the wake of Supreme Court reversing the Karnataka high court decision of disqualifying 11 BJP rebel MLAs and five independents ahead of the October 10, 2010 floor test in the assembly.

A rebellion by some lawmakers last year had reduced the Yeddyurappa ministry to a minority in the 225-member Assembly, leading Bhardwaj to order the chief minister to seek a trust vote.

Bhardwaj ordered another trust vote, which Yeddyurappa won on October 14 with 106 votes in favour and 100 against.

Of the 11 BJP rebels who had won back their membership, 10 again expressed their support to Yeddyurappa on Monday, while the 11th refused to do so.