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Various factions within BJP meet Pradhan, present their demands

Disgruntled BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday extended an olive branch to the party high command by sending out a team of his loyalists to meet BJP Karnataka in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan to espouse his cause.

Ministers Basavaraj Bommai, Murugesh Nirani, Umesh Katti, Raju Gowda, V Somanna and other supporters, except Shobha Karandlaje, held a meeting with Pradhan at the State party office in Malleswaram.

The ministers apparently tried to convince Pradhan about the need for retaining Yeddyurappa in the party at any cost. They also backed the allegations made by Yeddyurappa against party national general secretary Ananth Kumar, State party chief K S Eshwarappa and Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda.

This is not all. While demanding Pradhan to end the uncertainty in the party at the earliest, Yeddyurappa’s loyalists also placed some demands before him.

Some of the demands are said to be: Giving six of the 11 Cabinet berths to the Yeddyurappa faction, two of the three Legislative Council seats (to be done through nominations), four of the six other Council seats (through election from the Assembly), none from the faction should be dropped from the Cabinet and no change in their portfolios.

Yeddyurappa, who refused to meet any leader on Friday, had forced Pradhan to meet him at his residence. Though all BJP workers were free to meet Pradhan at the party office on Saturday, the Yeddyurappa faction was not expected to turn up.

However, Bommai and others landed at the State BJP office soon after Yeddyurappa lashed out at the party bosses.

“We have held a meeting on strengthening the party. The meeting has been satisfactory and we hope the high command will take steps to end the confusion in the State,” Bommai told reporters after the meeting.

Besides, K S Eshwarappa’s faction, C T Ravi’s faction and Balachandra Jarkiholi’s faction also met Pradhan and presented their wishes and demands.

Ravi is learnt to have submitted a memorandum with signatures of 70 MLAs of the party seeking Cabinet expansion at the earliest. Jarkiholi is learnt to have said that Yeddyurappa might quit the party and therefore Jagadish Shettar should be made the deputy chief minister as he is a prominent Lingayat leader from North Karnataka.

Pradhan left for Delhi later in the evening winding up his two-day visit. He will report about the situation in the State to Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who is overall in-charge for Karnataka affairs.

Yeddyurappa’s loyalists, who are also not keen on quitting the party, held marathon meetings with him after pouring out their grievances before Pradhan.