BSY puts plan to quit on hold

A brewing crisis in the BJP's Karnataka unit over the possibility of its former chief minister and Lingayat mass leader B S Yeddyurappa leaving the party with his supporters, spelling the end of the first BJP government in south India, was temporarily quelled on Monday with Yeddyurappa, who is facing a CBI probe for corruption, being convinced against making an exit.

Following an hour-long telephonic talk with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Monday, Yeddyurappa who claimed to have been on the verge of resigning from the legislature along with 52 other legislators, announced that he was holding back his fire temporarily. Party sources did not rule out the possibility of Jaitley flying to Bangalore in the next few days to hold further discussions with Yeddyurappa as well as other party leaders.

During the course of the day, Jaitley also met Yeddyurappa's close associates Shobha Karandlaje as well as MLC Lehar Singh, who flew down to the Capital, besides party MPs close to the former chief minister. The Karnataka leaders also met Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj. The BJP's Karnataka in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan was also present.

In Bangalore, Yeddyurappa blamed the BJP's state leadership — Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, state unit president K S Eshwarappa and central leader Ananth Kumar — for allowing a crisis to fester in the party through attempts to sideline him and his supporters.

"I have been convinced that my interests and the interests of my supporters in the BJP will be looked after. Arun Jaitley has advised me against taking any adverse decision. I have decided to temporarily postpone my plans of resigning from the legislature,'' Yeddyurappa said at a press conference.

"The Chief Minister of Karnataka and the BJP state president have insulted me by seeking the sacking of five ministers who are loyal to me. My supporters have been seeking a meeting of the BJP legislators because the Chief Minister is not releasing funds for their constituencies,'' Yeddyurappa claimed. He said that as many as 40 of the 121 BJP MLAs in the state had handed him resignations addressed to the Speaker of the Assembly.

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