Poor Chief Minister affected by: Governor

BANGALORE: Governor H R Bhardwaj made an interesting revelation on the tussle between the state government and the Raj Bhavan over the appointment of Lokayukta. Adding that he was not affected by the “pressure” of “powerful criminals” to appoint Justice S R Bannurmath as the Lokayukta, he said that it was not so with the chief minister.“There are powerful criminals who are pressuring the government to stick with  Bannurmath as Lokayukta... I have dealt with people who are out of power...  Pressure doesn’t work on me but it does so on the poor CM,” Bhardwaj told the media here on Wednesday.“Important investigations are being conducted and there is an attempt to browbeat the institution of Lokayukta,” he said.On how the office of the Lokayukta intends to clear its backlog of cases, the Governor said: “The government should recommend a Supreme Court judge for the post. I cannot dance to the tunes of the government.”Guv’s Speech for Joint Session ClearedThe state Cabinet which met here on Wednesday has approved the draft of Governor H R Bhardwaj’s speech to be delivered at the joint session of the Karnataka Legislature scheduled to be held on January 30.CM D V Sadananda Gowda said that besides approving the speech, the Cabinet has also decided to withdraw certain criminal cases pending against BJP Lok Sabha member Ananthkumar Hegde.