Assembly polls in Feb?

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Will state Assembly polls be held in February and not in May as scheduled?

Former chief minister B.S.Yeddyurappa feels so and told reporters here on Friday that question of whether the Jagadish Shettarled government was a BJP or coalition government was irrelevant as the government would last at the most for another three months.

Mr Yeddyurappa said this when asked if his loyalist ministers and MLAS were planning to quit the Shettar-led government by February and pave the way for elections.

The former CM who has made it clear that he will not pull down the Shettar government, said that according to the information he had, the Centre was seriously considering holding elections to the state Assembly in February.

He claimed he had the backing of around 55 MLAs and expressed confidence that the number would go up once the confusion over launching a new party was over.

Stating that he would field candidates in all 224 Assembly constituencies, Mr Yeddyurappa said preference would be given to new faces while allotting tickets. Women and minority community candidates would also get priority, he said.

Mr Yeddyurappa lost his cool when a reporter drew his attention to Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa’s threat to dissolve the Assembly. “Let him dissolve the Assembly. Why do you want to my reaction to this? Let them decide what they want to do”, he shot back.

Asked whether his party would enter into a pre-poll alliance with any other party, the Lingayat strongman replied in the negative.

Later speaking at a religious function organized at Omkar Bennur village, about 25 km from here, Mr Yeddyurappa took a dig at the Shettar government for failing to carry out development works. “This government has been hauled up by the High Court for its handling of the garbage mess in Bengaluru.

Can we expect such a party to build the state or country? Though there are plenty of funds available, no development work has happened for one year.

People should revolt against such a government. I have decided to quit the BJP as they backstabbed me”, he said and appealed to people to bless him in the coming elections and help him realise the dream of “Kalyana Karn­ata­ka” (welfare state).