As senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley returned to Delhi from Bangalore unable to convince the former BJP Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to remain in the organisation, there is at least one ray of hope for the high command after the meeting. The Lingayat leader is said to have assured Mr. Jaitley that he would consider extending support to the NDA in the event of it capturing power with a shortfall of numbers after the Lok Sabha polls.
However, there was no question of reconsidering or withdrawing his decision to formally take over the leadership of the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), a registered political outfit, on December 9 in Haveri, he clearly told BJP’s trouble-shooter Jaitley, according to sources here.
Mr. Jaitley met Mr. Yeddyurappa briefly at the residence of a senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary, Kumar, in Bangalore. While the former BJP strongman told Mr. Jaitley in clear-cut terms that he would not go back on his decision to quit the BJP, sources close to him also refuted media reports that he had hinted at staying back in the organisation if BJP president Nitin Gadkari was removed from the post vis-à-vis allegations against Mr. Gadkari relating to his company. He had already started touring the State and he was getting good feedback for his proposal to get out of the BJP, Mr. Yeddyurappa told Mr. Jaitley, sources said.
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KJP sources said the Election Commission was duly informed about the election of the former Union Minister V. Dhananjaya Kumar as the new president of the outfit in the recent meeting of the party general council. An intensive drive to enrol new members of the party would start in a couple of days, they added.