Zeenews Bureau
Bangalore: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, who arrived here on Saturday night apparently to dissuade former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa from leaving the party, seems to have failed in his task.
Yeddyurappa, who is sticking to his decision to float a new party on December 09 at a rally at Haveri, virtually shut the doors of negotiations, declaring he has already travelled a lot of distance in moving away from BJP and that there was no
Jaitely, who arrived here on Saturday night, keeping his trouble-shooting mission under wraps, met the party's Karnataka strongman at the residence of an RSS leader and tried to persuade the Lingayat strongman to reconsider his decision to bid goodbye to the party, BJP sources said.
According to NDTV, Yeddyurappa has cleared that he won’t stay in the BJP unless his demands are fulfilled - one of them reportedly being Nitin Gadkari's removal as the party’s president. He has also reportedly demanded that the BJP should not just appoint him as the Karnataka unit's chief but also project him as the next CM.
Though the sources said Yeddyurappa met Jaitley last night and that he ruled out any reconciliation, the former chief minister, however, refused to admit that such a meeting took place.
"There is no change in my plan to launch new party on December 09. Unmindful of whether anyone joins me on that day, I will go ahead with it. There is no question of looking back", Yeddyurappa told reporters at his residence here.
Yeddyurappa, who has been fuming at the BJP leadership at the Centre and in the state for "ill-treatment" meted out to him, said Jaitley was in the city to hold talks with him, but he did not meet him last night.
"I have respect for Jaitley. But there is no question of meeting any one or going back on my decision. I am not leaving BJP out of vengeance. I have certain dreams for Karnataka, which I could not realise when I was in BJP.”
"Now I want to realise those dreams of making Karnataka a progressive state," he said.
Yeddyurappa said he banked on the support of people. The 70-year-old Karnataka leader, who had played a key role in installing the first-ever BJP government in the South, said he was not floating a new political outfit to become chief minister or get any other post.
He also ruled out the possibility of his accepting any position like chief ministership or party presidentship in BJP.
According to the party sources, Jaitley was expected to return to Delhi today.
(With PTI inputs)
First Published: Sunday, November 11, 2012, 09:10