'BJP unable to meet BSY's desire to return as CM'

BJP on Sunday indicated its central leadership was in no hurry to reinstate B S Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister of Karnataka even as his successor D V Sadananda Gowda said he would remain in the top post till the next Assembly elections.

“Unlike Congress, the BJP central leadership is not in a position to fulfill the expectations of Yeddyurappa to return as chief minister in the wake of corruption charges against him,” state BJP President K S Eshwarappa told reporters here. “Congress may not ask Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to resign in the wake of the FIR filed against him over corruption charges, but BJP has its tradition to take action against leaders facing corruption charges,” he said.

Yeddyurappa, credited with formation of BJP’s first ever government in the south, was forced to quit in August by the party’s central leadership in the wake of his indictment in the Lokayukta report in connection with illegal mining. He is also facing charges of nepotism and favouritism in denotifying land to his family members levelled in a private complaint over which he was arrested and released on bail.

Gowda, while talking to reporters in Mangalore, said, “There is no confusion or any fissures in the party. I will be the chief minister till the next Assembly election,” he said referring to Yeddyurappa’s comments on collective leadership.

Yeddyurappa had recently said that everyone in the state knew he was the sole leader of the state BJP and did not care in the least about Eshwarappa’s insistence on collective leadership. Gowda, who was Yeddyurappa’s choice for the chief minister’s post, said that only the BJP central leadership would decide whether the party should have collective leadership or an individual leading it.

Eshwarappa said the party “does not give prominence to an individual but accords importance to the country and party”.