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Party brass to hear both factions

In the midst of the latest round of brinkmanship indulged in by warring factions in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  in Karnataka, the party central leadership on Saturday offered to convene meetings of the state core committee and the parliamentary board early next week to address the leadership issue.

The offer, however, came with a rider. The nine pro-B S Yeddyurappa camp ministers who submitted their resignations to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Friday should withdraw their letters  immediately.

Sources in the national capital told Deccan Herald that the central leadership’s proposal to convene meetings of the two key panels was conveyed by state BJP in charge general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan to all top state BJP leaders in the course of his meetings with them over the last two days. Pradhan, who concluded his consultations in Bangalore on Saturday evening, was scheduled to return to Delhi on Sunday to brief party president Nitin Gadkari.

The sources said the core committee meeting would be held in Delhi on Tuesday, if the Yeddyurappa camp ministers unconditionally withdrew their letters of resignation. The core committee meeting would be followed by a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board where the demand for replacing Gowda as chief minister could be considered.

The core committee is ch­a­i­r­ed by Gadkari. Arun Jaitley, Pr­adhan, Ananth Kumar, Gowda, Yeddyurappa, Jaga­dish Sh­e­ttar and party state unit presi­d­ent K S Eshwarappa are its members. 

However, Yeddyurappa gave no indication of relenting. The ministers supporting him stuck to their stand that they would withdraw their resignations only after the central leadership agreed to replace Gowda.

The Yeddyurappa camp is using the Presidential poll scheduled for July 19 as a stick to pressure the central leadership, demanding the ouster of Gowda. Stepping up pressure, the faction, on Saturday, threatened that its MLAs and MPs  would also tender their resignations on Sunday, if Gowda was not removed at the earliest.

The MPs and MLAs are voters in the presidential election. A meeting of the supporting MLAs, MLCs and MPs has been convened on Sunday at Shettar’s residence. About 13 MPs who are loyal to Yeddyurappa are learnt to have offered to resign if necessary.

The Yeddyurappa loyalists it seems have told Pradhan that they will stand by the party’s decision to change the leadership after July 19, but they want the legislature party meeting to be convened immediately. This is because they fear that the central leadership would not heed their demand once presidential election was over.

A team of BJP legislators led by Ministers Balachandra Jarkiholi and Anand Asnotikar, who are backing Gowda, is learnt to have told Pradhan that they were against Gowda’s removal. They are ready to take any extreme step if the leadership considers a change of guard.