BSY meets Gov, covers all bases
Former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who has raised the banner of revolt yet again seeking a change of guard in the state government, seems to have been working on the strategy over the last few weeks to ensure that nothing goes wrong this time around.
Unknown to his own supporters, Mr Yeddyurappa secretly met Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on at least four occasions in recent weeks, apparently to work out ways to see the fruition of his gameplan. Highly placed sources told this newspaper that the former CM has held four secret meetings with the governor at Raj Bhavan, which were arranged by a trusted legislator. Each time, he went to Raj Bhavan in the private car of his trusted man and entered through the back door.
The first of these meetings was held on June 20, a day before he got anticipatory bail from the high court. He met the governor for a second time the very next day. Mr Yeddyurappa held a third meeting with Mr Bhardwaj on June 22 at 5 pm where he requested the governor to dissolve the Assembly. Again, on June 28, he entered Raj Bhavan around 12.30 pm and exited at 2 pm. As per one theory, Mr Yeddyurappa may have been looking to stymie any chance of Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda surviving a trust vote by asking the governor to dissolve the assembly. This way, he can prevent the JD(S) from bailing out Mr Gowda.
A second theory is that Mr Yeddyurappa’s visit was to strike a deal where he would allow imposition of President’s rule, thereby giving the governor a hold on the administration for six months, and, in return, get the CBI off his back. Yet another theory is that by asking the governor to dissolve the assembly, Mr Yeddyurappa would remain the undisputed leader of the Lingayats as it would prevent Mr Jagadish Shettar from staking claim to the chief minister’s post and also as the Lingayat face in the state.
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