After making a strident campaign for his comeback, B.S. Yeddyurappa today said he would accept the decision of the central BJP leadership on utilising his services “in whatever capacity” as Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda continued to insist there would be no change of guard.
“It is left to the party to take a decision on utilising my services in whatever capacity. I will accept whatever decision the party high command takes,” Mr. Yeddyurappa, who had raised the pitch for his reinstatement as chief minister in recent days before agreeing to a temporary truce, told reporters here.
A day after returning from Delhi holding consultations with BJP Central leaders including party president Nitin Gadkari, L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitely and others, the former Karnataka Chief Minister said he had not insisted on any post, adding “I am confident the party will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time.”
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Mr. Gowda, who also met central leaders in Delhi, dismissed as ‘figment of imagination’ reports about his resignation and claimed the party central leaders were happy about his governance and the budget presented by him.
“There is no change of guard in the state,” said Mr. Gowda, who also described Mr. Yeddyurappa as the “unquestionable leader” of the State.
Noting that the Karnataka High Court has cleared Mr. Yeddyurappa in the illegal mining case filed against him on the basis of Lokayukta report, he hoped that the former chief minister would come clean in other corruption cases also.
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It was left to the party high command to decide on what position should be given to Mr. Yeddyurappa, he told reporters.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Yeddyurappa said he was not responsible for the defeat of BJP candidate V. Sunil Kumar in the by-election to Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok sabha seat which Mr. Gowda had held till becoming the chief minister.
“I am not responsible for the defeat in Udupi-Chikmagalur bypoll. Due to various reasons, I could not campaign,” Mr. Yeddyurappa said obviously replying to criticisms that his staying away was one of the reasons for the BJP yielding the seat to Congress.
Mr. Yeddyuappa described his four-hour long discussions with central party leaders as “fruitful”.
He defended his action in huddling about 65 MLAs in a resort to demonstrate his strength in his comeback campaign saying he came to know about problems faced by the legislators in their constituencies.
“There is nothing wrong in holding meeting in a resort. Definitely we will have more such meetings. The MLAs can even meet him in his race course residence in future to discuss their constituency problems,” he said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, who was forced to quit as chief minister in July last by the central leadership over the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, said he would continue to work for strengthening the party.
He said he had advised Sadananda Gowda in preparing the state’s 2012-13 Budget.
According to BJP sources, Mr. Gadkari has counselled Mr. Yeddyurappa to have patience and wait for the decision of the party while being asked to extend support for passing the budget in the assembly without any hurdle. The budget session is expected to end on March 30.