Will complete remaining term: Yeddyurappa

After earning a reprieve from the BJP high command, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa arrived here today from New Delhi to a rousing reception and asserted that he will complete the remaining two-and-half-year of his term in office.

“I am very grateful to all our leaders that they have given me an opportunity to serve the state,” Yeddyurappa told reporters outside the HAL airport, where BJP workers were in a celebratory mood, and later at his Race Course residence. The BJP’s aim now was to do extremely well in the coming taluk and zilla panchayat polls in the state, he said.

The party’s central leadership had asked him to complete the remaining term and also work towards bringing BJP back to power, Yeddyurappa said. “I will see the BJP government returns to power with absolute majority with over 150 seats (in the 224-member House),” he said, thanking the people and mutts for their support to him.

Yeddyurappa lashed out at the opposition Congress and JD(S), for levelling “false, baseless and irresponsible” charges and “misinformation campaign” and hoped they would not engage in “misadventure” again. The chief minister said he would “reveal whatever happened” (scams) from 1995, during the tenure of H D Deve Gowda, S M Krishna (Cong) and H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S) as chief minister.

He said he would respond to the charges levelled by the Opposition in a befitting manner at an appropriate time. Yeddyurappa, facing allegations of corruption and nepotism, again staved off a mounting challenge to his leadership as BJP today announced that he will continue in office.