Hard pressed to concede further ground to quell a rebellion of his MLAs led by the wealthy Reddy brothers from Bellary, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday became emotional over sacrifices already made.

A tearful Yeddyurappa told a regional channel that he had ditched his own trusted people for his own ends even as the Reddy brothers kept up the pressure for an ouster of the Chief Minister and takeover of the government.

Asked in an interview on the Asianet Suvarna Kannada channel on what his message to the people of Karnataka is in the light of the political happenings over the past two weeks in the state, Yeddyurappa said: "I would like to ask forgiveness for these events."

The Chief Minister, who first conceded ground to the rebels on Friday by transferring his trusted aide and principal secretary V P Baligar and is scheduled to drop his confidante Rural Development Minister Shobha Karandlaje from the ministry, then choked back tears while saying he may never be forgiven for his actions.

"For my own self-interest, I have been forced to ditch my own trusted people. Be it Shobha or Baligar. Even God will not forgive me for this," he told the channel.

When Yeddyurappa's interview went on air his arch-rivals, the Reddy brothers of Bellary, were doing some hard thinking in their first re-grouping in several days, following the return of their negotiator, Tourism and Infrastructure Minister Janardhan Reddy, to Bangalore from Hyderabad and New Delhi.

When the brothers appeared before the media an hour later they did not seem to have been mellowed by Yeddyurappa's remorse. Janardhan Reddy continued from where he had left on the demand for a change in leadership.

... contd.