The crisis for the BJP continued on both the Karnataka and Jharkhand fronts on Wednesday. Former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa reached New Delhi on Wednesday evening to mount pressure on the party leadership for his reinstatement, while in Jharkhand Anshuman Mishra, the controversial Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha supported by the BJP, was forced to withdraw his nomination following a diktat by party chief Nitin Gadkari.
The BJP will now not put up any candidate, and told its Jharkhand MLAs to abstain from voting following “massive reports of horse-trading”.
As Mr Yeddyurappa met senior party leaders, Karnataka chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and state unit chief K.S. Eshwarappa have also been called to New Delhi, and are expected to arrive by the night. Mr Gowda said the BJP president had assured him there “will be no leadership change in the state”. Both the CM and the state party chief are against any move to bring Mr Yeddyurappa back to power. The RSS also asked the BJP leadership not to strike any deal with Mr Yeddyurappa.
While a section of senior BJP leaders are believed to be in favour of Mr Yeddyurappa, others like L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi want “decisive action” against him. Mr Arun Jaitley, who was examining the legal aspects of the Yeddyurappa case, met Mr Gadkari late Wednesday evening. The BJP’s core group is likely to meet Thursday to take a final call.
Mr Yeddyurappa claims 62 of the BJP’s 120 Karnataka MLAs are backing him, though some leaders claim only a dozen MLAs are loyal to him.