Yeddyurappa to take over as KJP president on December 10

The former Chief Minister and erstwhile strongman of the BJP B.S. Yeddyurappa will, on December 10, take over as the president of the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), which is a registered political party with the Election Commission since April 2011.

On December 9, he will officially quit from the primary membership of the BJP and also from the membership of the Legislative Assembly. There would be a convention of his supporters in Haveri on December 10 for his formal entry into the regional outfit.

The former Union Minister and Mr. Yeddyurappa’s spokesman, V. Dhananjay Kumar, told

The Hindu over phone on Tuesday that there was no going back on the Lingayat leader’s decision to have his own party to face the 2013 Assembly polls in the State.

Reports appearing in a section of the media that BJP president Nitin Gadkari was having back channel talks with Mr. Yeddyurappa to prevent his exit were not true, Mr. Dhananjay Kumar said. “I can confidently say that they (the reports) are false and no one has contacted him so far,” he added.

It is said that Mr. Dhananjay Kumar, who was expelled by the BJP recently for “anti-party activities”, is likely to be elected president of the KJP on October 31 at a meeting of office-bearers in Bangalore and the decision would be conveyed to the Election Commission later.

Asked what would happen to the supporters of Mr. Yeddyurappa in the Legislative Assembly, Council, Lok Sabha and various civic bodies, Mr. Dhananjay Kumar said: “They will continue to be BJP members till the next election in the respective Houses. Outside, they will be the functionaries of the KJP. If the BJP wants, let it expel them from the party.”

Mr. Dhananjay Kumar said the new party would have “social ideology”.

Begins process

Bangalore Special Correspondent reports:

Mr. Yeddyurappa began the process of joining the KJP on the occasion of Vijayadasami. “I have formally begun the process of quitting the BJP on Vijayadasami by holding consultations with KJP founder Prasanna Kumar,” Mr. Yeddyurappa told presspersons in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Stating that he was feeling suffocated in the BJP, he said that he does not have any other option but to quit the party. “Nobody who has self-respect can continue in the BJP,” he remarked even as he said that the people of the State were aware of the reasons for his move.

He said that he had drawn up a plan for the development of the State when he was the Chief Minister. “But I could not completely implement that plan as I had to step down abruptly,” he said.