BSY aims to contest from 10 constituencies in LS polls

B S Yeddyurappa, the former chief minister of Karnataka, and who is trying to establish his recently-formed Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), is looking to contest from around 10 constituencies in Karnataka in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections which is slated to be held during mid-2014.

Yeddyurappa, after exiting the BJP ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls, managed to secure six seats in the Karnataka Assembly which was held during mid-2013. Yeddyurappa said, he is considering pre-poll alliance with the NDA and he has written a letter and is awaiting reply.

“We are not particular on the 10 seats... it may be 10 or 7-8... it all depends on the pre-poll alliance discussions. But, first they have to first respond to my letter,” Yeddyurappa told a select group of reporters in Bangalore on Tuesday.

He, however, categorically denied that he will merge his fledgling party with the BJP as was widely speculated.

“After all the pain I went through, when I was in the BJP and way in which I left, there is no question of going back to the BJP,” he said.

Yeddyurappa, which was caught in the middle of the iron-ore mining and denotification scams, also said he will neither align with the Congress for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

However, senior political analysts indicate that Yeddyurappa may be keeping that option open in the run-up to the crucial polls.

Yeddyurappa, who is presently waging a battle against various populist schemes of the recently formed Congress government in Karnataka said that CM Siddaramaiah is veering towards casteist politics by launching populist schemes targetting a specific minority communities.

“If a scheme is for BPL family, then it should be applied across religions and should not be targetted to a specific community,” he said.

Yeddyurappa also came down heavily on Siddaramaiah’s scheme of giving rice at Rs 1 per kg to BPL families saying that the farmers are being hurt a lot because of this scheme and the price of this grain has dropped drastically.