Bharatiya Janata Party State leaders, who thought that the collapse of the H.D. Kumaraswamy government had cleared all the hurdles for them to form the next government, were taken by surprise on Wednesday to know that there were still glitches that need to be resolved such as the Speaker’s pending decision on the resignation of rebel Congress and JD(S) legislators and petitions seeking their disqualification.
ADVERTISEMENT
Party workers and even MLAs earlier were of the view that the party leaders would approach the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday to stake claim to form the next government. In fact, some of them had issued media statements soon after the collapse of the coalition government on Tuesday that their leaders would approach the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.
However, the decision taken by BJP central leaders to go cautiously prevented the State leaders from initiating the process related to government formation such as holding the legislature party meeting and approaching the Raj Bhavan. As the BJP State unit did not get any message from its central leaders to go ahead with the formation of the government, a delegation of party leaders Arvind Limbavali, J.C. Madhuswamy, and B.Y. Vijayendra, son of State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, left for New Delhi on Wednesday night.
Before leaving, they held a meeting with Mr. Yeddyurappa. These leaders are expected to brief the central leaders on the measures taken to ensure that rebels continue to stay with them, sources said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Many visitors
Nevertheless, the residence of Mr. Yeddyurappa, who is the party’s chief ministerial candidate, in Bengaluru turned into a beehive of activities as a large number of MLAs, political leaders, party workers, and prominent citizens paid a visit to greet him. BJP MLAs, particularly ministerial aspirants, were prominent among those who visited his house.
On his part, Mr. Yeddyurappa visited the RSS headquarters at Chamarajpet and consulted the Sangh Parivar leaders. After a brief meeting with them, he spent the day at his residence meeting the visitors.
He also held consultations with party national general secretary Muralidhar Rao, who is in charge of Karnataka, with respect to the steps to be taken by the party for government formation.
Meanwhile, a delegation of party leaders met Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar and appealed to him to take a call on the resignations of rebel MLAs at the earliest.
Amid these activities, BJP leaders R. Ashok and Ashwath Narayan left for Mumbai to reportedly hold consultations with the rebel MLAs. BJP leaders are learnt to have promised them that their political interests would be protected.