BJP convenes Parliamentary Board meet, Yeddyurappa may go

The BJP Parliamentary Board will meet here today to decide the fate of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa amidst signs that his continuance in office could be untenable in wake of the Lokayukta indictment in the mining scam.

The top brass of the BJP will meet this morning at the residence of BJP President Nitin Gadkari, who met Yeddyurappa late last night.

Yeddyurappa, who continued to be defiant and ruled out his resignation, left for Bangalore early this morning. He has a convened of meeting of party MLAs this morning in the Karnataka capital.

Sources said usually a meeting of the Parliamentary Board, the party's highest decision making body, is called only when some big decision has to be taken, and this is also a pointer that Yeddyurappa's time is up.

Upon his arrival here last evening with his ministers and close confidants, Yeddyurappa appeared defiant and said he has not been asked to resign.

In the meeting with the party president and senior central party leaders Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and Dharmendra Pradhan, the political fallout of the Lokayukta report was discussed with Yeddyurappa.

The Chief Minister tried to convince the central leadership that the charges made in the report were not new and a court case was already pending in the matter.

However, the central leadership conveyed to him that his continuance would weaken BJP's fight against corruption, especially when the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins next week.