Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091954790400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Anti-defection law needs a relook’

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday called upon the President to initiate further amendments to the Anti-Defection Law. “The new defections where legislators of Opposition parties are lured with money and positions of power and admitted to the BJP is a new methodology to circumvent the provisions of the anti-defection law. The BJP is the architect of a new defection scheme,” he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy challenged Mr. Yeddyurappa to face him on any platform in any district of the State to prove that his Government had implemented the people welfare schemes announced in the revised budget.

“Facts show that all these claims made by the Chief Minister over the past few weeks are only mere statements with an eye on the byelections to the seven Assembly constituencies and the elections to the Lok Sabha.”