Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Shocked over the party’s defeat in Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat bypoll, the BJP now appears inclined to reinstate BS Yeddyurappa as the chief minister of Karnataka.
The defeat in the bypoll has come as a rude shock as the BJP had been retaining the seat for the last 18 years. More embarrassingly, the seat was held by current Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda before he resigned to become a member of the Karnataka Assembly.
As per reports, Wednesday, the BJP top brass has made up its mind to bring back Yeddyurappa as CM. The announcement will be made within 24 hours, reports further said.
The decision would not have come easy for the party that boasts of discipline in its ranks, as Yeddyurappa had publicly took on the party leadership to press for his demand.
Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa arrived in the capital to mount further pressure for his reinstatement.
In an open revolt against the party, he had set a 48-hour deadline to the high command to make him chief minister. He had even herded over 60 MLAs into a resort near Bangalore to exert more pressure on the central leadership.
Yeddyurappa and his supporters have been demanding that the BJP central leadership should fulfill its promise to reinstate him as the chief minister as it was assured to him now that his name has been cleared. He even threatened to break away and float his own party if his demands are not met, reports said.
Clearly, the entire episode has once again exposed the BJP leadership’s failure to control the aspirations of powerful regional leaders, especially Yeddyurappa, who has caused trouble in the past too.
Even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had termed Yeddyurappa’s revolt as "very serious". Party chief Nitin Gadkari had met Mohan Bhagwat and other top leaders of the organisation over the issue.
Yeddyurappa had to resign in July 2011 after corruption charges were levelled against him by the state’s Lokayukta.
The Karnataka HC later gave him a clean chit in the illegal mining case, which emboldened his fresh move to exert pressure on the party.
