The BJP on Monday effectively rejected dissidents’ claim for a regime change in Karnataka when party president Rajnath Singh unequivocally stated that B S Yeddyurappa would continue as the state Chief Minister.

Speaking after a meeting of the BJP’s Core Group, Rajnath said “talks were on to resolve the crisis in the state at the earliest.” To a question whether Yeddyurappa would stay on as Karnataka Chief Minister, Rajnath said: “Bilkul (definitely).” The meeting was attended by L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Ram Lal, besides Rajnath.

But the crisis in the Karnataka BJP isn’t over just yet, with a leading light of the anti-Yeddyurappa camp — Janardhan Reddy — meeting party general secretary Ananth Kumar and BJP observer for the state Arun Jaitley and persisting with the rebels’ demand for a change of guard. A key member of the rebel group, health minister B Sreeramulu, however, climbed down and said the “dissidents would be willing to abide by any decision of the party high command.”

The Reddy brothers — Janardhan and Karunakar, who are both Ministers — claim to have the support of 62 of the party’s 117 MLAs in the state.

They have been persistent with their demand for a change of guard in the state due to a host of reasons — and this was conveyed to the BJP brass by Janardhan Reddy. “We have requested (the central leadership) to provide a better leadership in Karnataka. Our party leaders will be taking the right decision... It will be in the interest of the party, in the interest of Karnataka to provide a very good leadership to the state,” Reddy said, after meeting Ananth Kumar and Jaitley, early in the day.

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