In a climb-down from his belligerent stand of reclaiming the chief minister’s post, BJP strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa on Sunday indicated that he is willing to be the state party president if the high command offered him the post.
The political developments all through the day in Hubli, which hosted a huge rally to celebrate Mr Yeddyurappa’s 70th birthday, gave enough indication that he has given up his one-point agenda of becoming the CM. “The BJP will be in power over the next two decades. I will work hard to make it a reality,” he said during the public address.
He chanted the unity mantra, contradicting his statement earlier in the day of taking on his party central leaders and detractors in the state. Unwilling to blame his party colleagues, he said Opposition leaders, including JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy, were behind the conspiracy to throw him out of the chief minister’s post.
“I don’t want to criticise the BJP central leadership, which could not keep up its promise of giving me the chief minister’s post after I was exonerated from illegal mining cases. I have not come to Hubli seeking the post,” he clarified.
But in the morning, it was an angry Mr Yeddyurappa who said: “I would have put Karnataka on the path of development if I was given free hand as chief minister. But our own partymen and Opposition leaders harassed me. I’ll not accept any position even if the party high command offered it to me over phone tomorrow.”
He said, “Given the four decades of political career, I have vast experience and expertise like Arjuna (of Mahabharata), who knew how to penetrate chakravyuha.”