He may have got the thumbs-down from BJP patriarch L.K. Advani but embattled Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who admitted to wrong-doing when he met BJP central leaders in back-to-back meetings all through Monday and Tuesday, may just live to die another day.
After hectic confabulations among the BJP top brass and Mr Yeddyurappa’s meetings with some central party leaders, party chief Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that a decision on Mr Yeddyurappa’s fate would be announced on Wednesday morning. The BJP central leaders summoned state unit president K.S. Eshwarappa to participate in a meeting with them in New Delhi.
But there is every indication that in a bid to save the first ever BJP government in south India, the BJP central leaders have decided to back down and keep Mr Yeddyurappa in the saddle until the local body elections, which are likely in mid-December.
Mr Yeddyurappa, citing sustained attempts to destabilise his government by the Reddy mine barons and their sometime ally, party general secretary Ananth Kumar, not only asked why neither had been sacked or faced disciplinary action for mounting one rebellion after another against him but also pitched strongly to continue in office for his full term.
High-level sources in the party insist that BSY’s position will be unassailable if the BJP wins 20 of the 30 zilla panchayats in the forthcoming elections. “That’s his strategy. If he is allowed to establish the BJP at the grassroots level in the state, no one can touch him. They will have to let him continue.”
However, neither his family — who met Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, nor his supporters are celebrating just yet. BSY’s meeting with Mr Jaitley was said to be particularly rough after Mr Advani’s tirade against the man to whom they had entrusted Karnataka. “Where is your accountant, do you have a lawyer,” asked Mr Jaitley after he had perused the documents that had been aired by the JD(S) in the media.
Sources confirmed that BSY had been told “it was an open and shut case”, but the CM had countered that he had the right to “denotify” sites under “G” category. His only wrong-doing, he said, was in giving the land to his sons and daughter rather than industry. His children, meanwhile, are also said to have made the case that they had a right to setting up businesses, but had their knuckles rapped by Mr Jaitley, sources said.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Yeddyurappa also met party Rajya Sabha MP M. Venkaiah Naidu and virtually threatened to go on his own if the party failed to back him on continuing as CM. He reportedly explained in detail how he helped the party win several elections. Mr Yeddyurappa’s terse message made the party central leaders go slow on deciding his fate.
Despite Mr L.K. Advani telling the central leaders that Mr Yeddyurappa has to go, the central core committee members obtained feedback from state leaders who made it clear that the party may lose Lingayat support if Mr Yeddyurappa was removed. Finally, the leaders seem to have felt that it would be better to adopt a pragmatic approach of retaining the party’s base instead of upholding the high ethical stand which would rob them of Lingayat support.
If Mr Yeddyurappa gets a fresh lease of life, it would be a big victory for him as he has taken on the party high command. In the past he survived the rebellion engineered by the Reddy brothers last year and a group of BJP MLAs backed by JD(S) national president H.D. Kumaraswamy.
In New Delhi, Mr Gadkari met the BJP top brass, including Mr Jaitley, Mr V. Satish and Mr Ramlal at senior leader and RSS pointsman in the party Bal Apte’s residence. Mr Yeddyurappa met Mr Gadkari on Tuesday morning and again at night.
Sources disclosed when BSY met Mr Gadkari on Tuesday morning, he told the latter that his removal would affect the party’s prospects in the upcoming Karnataka panchayat elections.
Mr Yeddyurappa, openly defiant earlier, said after his meeting with senior BJP leaders, “Whatever the party decides finally, I will go by the party’s decision.”
Mr Yeddyurappa, after arriving in New Delhi on Monday, had held a meeting with 17 BJP MPs from Karnataka. Sources disclosed that these MPs also told the party top brass that if Mr Yeddyurappa were removed, it might jeopardise party’s Lingayat vote bank and that the central leadership should first send an observer to the state to get the real picture before deciding the chief minister’s fate. However, it is learnt that they were silenced by senior leaders and told that a parliamentary party meeting was not the right forum to raise such issues.
After the meeting, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu said the central leadership was seized of the matter and was holding discussions with state leaders. “The party is discussing the matter and an appropriate decision will be taken at an appropriate time,” he said.