Even as the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has said a clear picture on his re-entry to the Bharatiya Janata Party may emerge in about a week, his re-entry is likely to take place by this month-end.
According to sources in the BJP, decks are almost cleared for his re-entry, and party national president Rajnath Singh himself is working towards building consensus on Mr. Yeddyurappa re-inclusion into the party. “What is remaining is a meeting of the party central leaders to be held in Delhi to make a formal decision on the issue”.
Sources attributed the delay to the fact that central BJP leaders were preoccupied with the results of the Assembly elections in four States. “Of course, a section of the central leaders have minor apprehensions on the impact of Mr. Yeddyurappa’s re-entry to the party in the wake of a series of legal cases against him. But these issues are unlikely to stall his re-entry as the party is now looking mainly at consolidation of its position by ensuring that its votes are not divided in the State during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.”
The BJP State unit long ago communicated to the central leadership that it does not have any objection to Mr. Yeddyurappa’s re-entry to the party.
“Since Mr. Yeddyurappa is being re-included in the BJP mainly to help improve the party’s position ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, we feel that there is no point in delaying the process as it may not serve the purpose,” a prominent State unit leader said.
According to him, the party is yet to discuss or decide the post to be offered to Mr. Yeddyurappa.
“We are yet to reach the stage of deciding the post to be given to him. Also, he has not made any formal demand for a post,” the leader said.
It is interesting to note that despite commencing preparations for the Lok Sabha elections very early, the party has decided to wait till next month for choosing candidates. Though the party has not given any specific reason for this, some leaders interpret this as a strategy to wait for Mr. Yeddyurappa’s re-inclusion.
While the Karnataka Janata Paksha led by Mr. Yeddyurappa failed to emerge as a formidable political force in the 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP too lost its ground due to division of votes. The poor showing continued for both the parties even after the Assembly elections as they could not win any of the byelections to the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council.
