Ceasefire in BJP's Karnataka unit

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s woes in Karnataka appeared to subside after the party’s central leadership assured former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa it would take a decision on replacing Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda at the earliest.

Senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Dharmendra Pradhan have asked Yeddyurappa not to blackmail the party into replacing Gowda. They added he should instead, create an environment for talks to be held without a threat to the state government. “Since the party high command has assured to replace Gowda at the earliest, the eight ministers who had resigned from the cabinet have agreed to take back their resignations. B S Yeddyurappa and Jagdish Shettar have the support of more than 65 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs),” said a senior BJP leader.

 

Senior leaders involved in managing the crisis in the state said of the 121 BJP MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka assembly, at least 55 were present at Yeddyurappa’s residence when Dharmendra Pradhan had met him on Sunday. The BJP leadership has also assured Yeddyurappa he would have more authority in distributing election tickets. Assembly elections in Karnataka are due before June next year, and the party leadership has assured Yeddyurappa he would play a crucial role in the campaign. “We don’t see Sadananda Gowda leading the BJP in the assembly elections. We expect the party high command to replace him much before that. Gowda has lost the confidence of ministers and MLAs, and they don’t want to work under his leadership,” said a senior Karnataka cabinet minister.

Though Gowda was hand-picked by Yeddyurappa for the chief minister’s post, ties between them became strained after Gowda failed to rescue the former chief minister from corruption cases. Yeddyurappa had also complained to BJP president Nitin Gadkari that Gowda was working with the Janata Dal (Secular) party to corner him in the state.

“Our demand was very clear from the beginning. We wanted Sadananda Gowda to call the legislative party meeting, but he didn’t. The Karnataka chief minister was scared because he knows if a legislative party is called, the MLAs would openly revolt against him,” said a senior BJP leader close to Yeddyurappa. Yeddyurappa now wants the BJP’s central leadership to replace Gowda with panchayati raj minister Jagdish Shettar. Shettar, along with some of his supporters, is in Delhi to hold talks with Gadkari and other senior BJP leaders.