With his latest deadline of January 15 — for taking a call on toppling the Jagadish Shettar government — fizzling out, Karnataka Janata Paksha State president and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Tuesday withdrew from the politics of issuing deadlines.
“I have stopped issuing deadlines. I have been making efforts to strengthen the KJP in the State,” he told reporters during his visit to Hassan on the way to Halebid, where he attended Guru Siddarameshwara Jayanti celebrations.
When his attention was drawn to speculation that Ministers Shobha Karandlaje and C.M. Udasi may resign on January 23 to join the KJP, he said, “I do not know about it.” He remarked that he was not in the least bothered about who (from the Bharatiya Janata Party) would or would not join his political outfit.
Mr. Yeddyurappa had earlier announced that a decision on toppling the Shettar government would be taken on January 4 by convincing some BJP MLAs to quit. But on that day, he announced that he had put off the decision to January 15.
According to sources, the Ministers in the Yeddyurappa camp are rather lukewarm to the idea of quitting their posts and joining his regional outfit now. Similarly, a majority of the MLAs from his camp too are not too keen to sever ties with the BJP at this juncture as they have been reportedly assured of funds for development of their constituencies ahead of the elections by the BJP dispensation.
“As these MLAs and Ministers have received political favours from him when he was Chief Minister, they are desisting from directly rejecting his offer to join the KJP. But they are indicating their dilemma by repeatedly seeking extension of time to make the decision. This has forced Mr. Yeddyurappa to keep on extending his deadlines to topple the government,” sources in the KJP said.
Some to quit on January 23?
However, within hours of Mr. Yeddyurappa’s decision to keep away from issuing deadlines, his close aide and a prominent leader of the KJP told reporters in Bangalore on condition of anonymity that some of the BJP MLAs loyal to Mr. Yeddyurappa would submit their resignation letters to the Speaker on January 23.
When asked how many would quit, he only said: “All that I can tell you now is that a certain number of MLAs, which is enough to bring down the government, will quit their Assembly membership on that day.”
Meanwhile addressing a press conference in Bangalore, KJP leader V. Dhananjay Kumar did not give a direct reply on the party’s plans to make the BJP MLAs quit. All that he would say was that the BJP government was set to fall soon.
When he was reminded that Mr. Yeddyurappa had recently told a press conference that he had put off his decision of toppling the government to January 15 as he wanted to make such a crucial decision during the “auspicious season”, Mr. Kumar said: “The auspicious day is yet to come.”
To a query on whether Mr. Yeddyurappa has been putting off the decision to topple the government because he has failed to muster adequate support to back his plan, Mr. Kumar said this was not true.
