Yeddyurappa audio clip of luring JDS MLAs will be probed: Speaker

Taking a serious note of his name being dragged in the purported conversation of BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa in an alleged bid to lure a JDS MLA, Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar Friday said he would order an inquiry into the issue in the House on Monday. Releasing the audio Friday morning, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had charged Yeddyurappa with horse-trading and released an audio clip to back his claim that he was making attempts to woo MLAs to topple the coalition government.

As speaker Kumar's name has been mentioned during the purported conversation, Kumar said, "On Monday I will take it up suo motu in the Assembly and will get the inquiry done. We will not let any street urchin speak like this about the Speaker and others. Yeddyurappa did not say it. Obviously, someone at that moment said so," he told reporters here.

Kumar said he has received the audio clip and heard the entire conversation in his chamber. He felt that it was difficult to make out who was talking to whom, but it was a cause for concern that some big names were thrown about during the course of conversation.

"They invoke the names of judges, Prime Minister and the BJP national president during the conversation. I don't know who the person is. That must now be subjected to inquiry. The proper forum for me to mention it is the assembly," he said. Dropping a bombshell ahead of tabling the budget, Kumaraswamy had released the audio clip, in which Yeddyurappa was allegedly trying to lure a JDS MLA through his son.

(With inputs from agencies.)