In a last ditch effort to pacify its former Karnataka chief minister and lingayat strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa, who has threatened to quit the saffron party and float his own outfit, state CM Jagdish Shettar along with his two deputies on Tuesday held series of meetings with the BJP top brass. Party chief Nitin Gadkari, who is facing allegations of dubious source of funding to his companies, however, skipped the meeting with Karnataka leaders.
He deputed his crisis managers — Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and state in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan — to talk to Karnataka leaders and save the saffron party from splitting in the southern state. The BJP maintained Mr Gadkari could not meet the Karnataka leaders as he was “busy in consultation with legal experts in Nagpur and Mumbai”. Sources disclosed BJP’s Karnataka leaders have suggested that Mr Yeddyurappa, who was forced to quit his CM post over corruption charges, should be made the state unit chief and be given an important role in the Assembly polls. However, the BJP top brass told them that they will get back to them after consulting with other leaders.
“We are very hopeful that something positive will come out of these meetings”,” said BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan.