While all of his men are pushing for a leadership change and rallying behind another Lingayat leader, Mr Jagadish Shettar, for the post of chief minister, belligerent BJP strongman Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa seems to have altogether other plans up his sleeve.
In an apparent bid to strike a deal with the Congress, unknown to his own supporters, Mr Yeddyurappa secretly met governor H.R. Bhardwaj a week ago to explore the possibilities of dissolution of the state Assembly, clearly showing that he was in no mood to accept even Mr Jagadish Shettar as the chief minister.
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 rear entrance.
The first of these secret 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 through the rear entrance around 12.30 pm with the legislator and came out at 2 pm. Sources said Mr Yeddyurappa may have been trying to hit two birds with one stone as, in the event of a constitutional crisis, the governor may direct the Chief Minister to seek a trust vote in the Assembly where the JD(S) may bail out Mr Sadananda Gowda. Another worry for him was that if the party central leadership decided to replace Mr Sadananda Gowda with Mr Shettar, his political carrier would end. Dissolution of the assembly would end both his problems and hence, he approached the governor, the sources added.
Unconfirmed reports also suggested that Mr Yeddyurappa’s visit was part of a trade-off between the Congress and him. As part of the deal, Mr Yeddyurappa would allow the Congress to get a hold on the administration for six months when Presid-ent’s rule is in force before the next Assembly polls.