BJP emissary asks ministers to withdraw resignations

Yeddyurappa camp sets deadline of July 5

On a mission to resolve the latest crisis starring the BJP Government, the central party leadership’s emissary Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday asked the nine Ministers loyal to B S Yeddyurappa to withdraw their resignations which has thrown the D V Sadananda Ministry into a turmoil.

“I ask all nine ministers to withdraw their resignations to pave the way to resolve the leadership issue,” Pradhan, in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka, told reporters at the state RSS headquarters before leaving for New Delhi.

Pradhan said he would apprise the party central leadership of the consultations he held with the two warring factions of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and his predecessor Yeddyurappa who is insisting on a change of guard. He said he was hopeful that the party central leadership would resolve the issue. “I will discuss with central leaders and hope a good decision will be taken by them,” he said.

 

At the end of his hectic consultations within the BJP, Pradhan on Sunday met RSS leaders and briefed them about the situation brought about by the resignation of nine ministers to put pressure on BJP central leadership to remove Gowda. With both factions crossing swords, Pradhan was deputed as the central emissary to defuse the crisis.

Yeddyurappa, whose earlier attempts to secure chief minister’s post failed, has been targeting Gowda, a loyalist-turned foe, seeking his removal and projecting Minister Jagadish Shettar as the alternative. The party central leadership had yesterday summoned Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda to New Delhi to resolve the crisis. He expected to be in Delhi on July 2.

The summons came hours after the turmoil in the BJP state unit showed no signs of abating as the B S Yeddyurappa camp stuck to its one-point agenda of ousting Gowda. A day after nine Yeddyurappa loyalist-Ministers quit precipitating the crisis, Gowda expressed confidence of resolving it with the intervention of the party’s central leadership.

State BJP President K S Eshwarappa, who met Gowda, said there was no question of accepting the resignations.

Meanwhile,the rebel B S Yeddyurappa faction in Karnataka on Sunday sought to mount pressure on the BJP central leadership setting July 5 deadline for a decision on making their nominee Jagadish Shettar the Chief Minister replacing incumbent D V Sadananda Gowda.

Lok Sabha members from the state, MLAs and MLCs supporting Yeddyurappa met at the residence of Shettar and rallied behind him in a show of strength, a day after BJP emissary Dharmendra Pradhan held consultations with rival factions to resolve the crisis triggered by the resignation of nine ministers loyal to the former Chief Minister.

“We have unanimously decided to appeal to the high- command to make Shettar the Chief Minister,” Raju Gowda, who was among the nine Ministers, told reporters, while speaking for the group. “We are confident that a good decision will come by July five. If it does not come (by then), we will meet and take an important decision on July 5,” he added.

The attendees decided to authorise Yeddyurappa and Shettar to take a decision on political developments and abide by it. They appealed to the party high-command to convene the Legislature Party meeting. Raju Gowda said if it was not done, legislators loyal to Yeddyurappa themselves would convene one. He claimed that over 55 MLAs, 15 MLCs and eight MPs attended the meeting.

Lok Sabha member Suresh C Angadi blamed the party’s central leadership for the crisis, saying he had brought it to the notice of top leaders Nitin Gadkari, L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, besides senior leader from the state H N Ananth Kumar and “no body is caring”.

“If the party high-command does not take a decision by July 5, I want to warn that the party’s high command will be responsible for the consequences,” Angadi said.

Lok Sabha members G S Basavaraj, G M Siddeshwar and B Y Raghavendra (Yeddyurappa’s son) and Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore were among those present at the meeting.