Bangalore, July 25 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Monday said he had urged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari to set up a party panel to probe the graft charges against him.


“I have suggested a panel of (former BJP president) M. Venkaiah Naidu, (Bangalore South Lok Sabha member) H.N. Ananath Kumar and (party Karnataka in-charge) Dharmendra Pradhan to probe all allegations against me,” Yeddyurappa said at a press conference here.

The chief minister said “all sorts of baseless allegations have been made against me in the last three, particularly in the last one week as Lokayukta (ombudsman) is to submit report on illegal mining”.

He said he would comment on the report once it is submitted and also take action on it.

Yeddyurappa said the party would organise "huge rallies” in 20 of the state's 30 districts in August to explain to the people the “opposition conspiracy" to bring down his government.

In the first phase, rallies would be held in 10 districts. The exercises, he added, would start in the first week of August.

The chief minister reiterated that illegal mining had been on since the time of S.M. Krishna, the present external affairs minister who was chief minister from 1999-2004.

The Lokayukta report will bring out all the details from Krishna’s time till July 2010 and “will take necessary action”, Yeddyurappa, the BJP's first chief minister in the south, added.