Yeddyurappa meets central leaders, commands support

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today met BJP central leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, who continued to exert pressure on him to quit and facilitate smooth election of his successor.

As the political upheaval triggered by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining indicting the Chief Minister continued for the third day, the Yeddyurappa camp indicated that he was yet to take a final call on his resignation.

Yeddyurappa drove to the hotel, where Jaitley and Singh are staying and was closeted with them for some time, in the second meeting since the arrival of central leaders yesterday.

After the BJP Parliamentary Board directive on Thursday, Yeddyurappa had issued a statement saying he would step down on July 31, but within hours stirred up a virtual rebellion setting pre-conditions that even resulted in the cancellation of the legislature party to choose his successor yesterday.

"The collective opinion of the (majority) MLAs is that he should not resign," Chief Whip of the ruling party DN Jeevaraj told reporters outside the Yeddyurappa's residence.

"Seventy-four MLAs have given authorisation to Yeddyurappa to decide whether he should resign or not," he said as the Chief Minister's loyalists stood their ground publicly insisting that he should be allowed to continue.