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| (Top) BS Yeddyurappa and Kalyan Singh |
New Delhi, Oct. 30: The BJP brass is making a final effort to retain Karnataka strongman and former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in the party, but a source close to him said he would have nothing to do with Nitin Gadkari.
“He is clear that as long as Gadkari heads the party, there’s no way he will stay back,” the source said.
Yeddyurappa, who has for the past month been talking of floating his own outfit before the Karnataka elections that are due in May 2013, could at best wait out until December or January to see how the BJP’s leadership issue pans out — whether Gadkari is replaced and by whom.
Gadkari, who last night called off the last leg of his campaign in Himachal Pradesh as he faces the heat on corruption charges, issued a terse release saying he had authorised Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Arun Jaitley and general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan to intercede in Karnataka affairs on his behalf.
Today, a team from Karnataka led by chief minister Jagadish Shettar and his two deputies, R. Ashoka and K.S. Eshwarappa, came to Delhi hoping to meet the party president.
In Gadkari’s absence, they met Jaitley, Pradhan and former BJP president Rajnath Singh. A source said the “unanimous” view of the delegation, which included pro- and anti-Yeddyurappa MLAs, was that he should be spoken to and “brought around”.
A source said: “Regardless of whether they personally liked or disliked him, they emphasised one thing: Yeddyurappa was the BJP’s most popular face, he had a committed caste following and he had built the party from scratch. They said that under any other leader, the BJP was destined to lose.”
The team also suggested appointing Yeddyurappa as the Karnataka BJP president.
Asked how he could lead the BJP with corruption cases hanging over his head, a minister not known to be particularly sympathetic to Yeddyurappa said: “Well, the Congress took a chance by projecting Virbhadra Singh as their face (in the Himachal polls). Our own party chief faces charges. Corruption is not a huge issue in Karnataka because at the end of the day, Yeddyurappa has also done a lot of good work on the ground, especially for the farmers.”
Sources in the pro-Yeddyurappa camp made it clear that they would not quit the BJP right away even if their mentor left. The MLAs would take a call closer to the election, depending on the “mood of the voters” and whether it looked like Yeddyurappa would just play spoiler or actually win seats.
The BJP’s keep-Yeddyurappa-back project is part of an overall agenda that seeks to bring back rebels who have left the party and placate those on the verge of revolting. Kalyan Singh is set to return after three years. On the other hand, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has conveyed time and again that unless the RSS stops backing her detractors to thwart her prospects, she could go the Kalyan and Yeddyurappa way and form her own party.
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