The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's Delhi trip to impress upon the Bharatiya Janata Party high command about the need to give him a prominent position has again failed with the party top leaders indicating that they would not yield to pressure tactics and ruling out the possibility of providing the post of the Chief Minister or party State president till he comes clean of corruption charges.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, who has been speculated to be considering various political options about his future, had rushed to Delhi on Monday to meet the top leaders. During the meeting, the party central leadership is learnt to have made it clear to him that there was no change in its stand that it cannot consider him for the top posts till he comes out of the series of corruption charges and court cases.
“When Mr. Yeddyurappa met him, party national president Nitin Gadkari reiterated what he had said at the party's brain-storming session in Bangalore recently (that the question of leadership in Karnataka does not arise) when Mr. Yeddyurappa had set a February 27 deadline for the party to decide on reinstating him as Chief Minister,” sources in the BJP said. Mr. Yeddyurappa returned to Bangalore empty-handed on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the BJP circles in the State are interpreting the party's improved performance in the elections in five States as a “setback” to Mr. Yeddyurappa. Pointing out that the BJP central leadership has hinted that it would try to build on its performance by strengthening its anti-corruption campaign against the Congress with an eye on the next elections to the Lok Sabha, sources said that the party high command is in no mood to heed the demands of Mr. Yeddyurappa now as he does not fit in the present scheme of things where the anti-corruption campaign is going to be the main weapon.
Mr. Yeddyurappa is trying to organise his community of Lingayats, which has formed his political base, to show his political clout. His followers are planning to organise a big event in Hubli on March 11 as part of his birthday celebrations.
His supporters have been indirectly threatening that he may explore political options outside the BJP if he is not given a suitable position by the party leaders. But referring to this, the sources said that the party high command was ready to face the situation even if he walks out on the party. “There is no question of changing our stance regarding the top posts just to retain him in the party,” they said.
The party high command is expected to soon fix a date for the meeting of the party's core committee to be held in Delhi to discuss the option of providing other posts to Mr. Yeddyurappa such as that of the party's campaign committee chairman for the next Assembly elections.
