Bangalore: After making a strident campaign
for his comeback, BS Yeddyurappa on Friday said he would accept
the decision of the central BJP leadership on utilising his
services "in whatever capacity" as Karnataka Chief Minister D
V Sadananda Gowda continued to insist there would be no change
of guard.
"It is left to the party to take a decision on utilising my
services in whatever capacity. I will accept whatever decision
the party high command takes," Yeddyurappa, who had raised the
pitch for his reinstatement as chief minister in recent days
before agreeing to a temporary truce, told reporters here.
A day after returning from Delhi holding consultations with
BJP Central leaders including party president Nitin Gadkari, L
K Advani, Arun Jaitely and others, the former Karnataka Chief
Minister said he had not insisted on any post, adding "I am
confident the party will take an appropriate decision at an
appropriate time."
Gowda, who also met central leaders in Delhi, dismissed a
`figment of imagination` reports about his resignation and
claimed the party central leaders were happy about his
governance and the budget presented by him.
"There is no change of guard in the state," said Gowda, who
also described Yeddyurappa as the "unquestionable leader" of
the state.
Noting that the Karnataka High Court has cleared
Yeddyurappa in the illegal mining case filed against him on
the basis of Lokayukta report, he hoped that the former chief
minister would come clean in other corruption cases also.
It was left to the party high command to decide on what
position should be given to Yeddyurappa, he told reporters.
Speaking to mediapersons separately, Yeddyurappa said he
was not responsible for the defeat of BJP candidate V Sunil
Kumar in the by-election to Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok sabha seat
which Gowda had held till becoming the chief minister.
"I am not responsible for the defeat in Udupi-Chikmagalur
bypoll. Due to various reasons, I could not campaign,"
Yeddyurappa said obviously replying to criticisms that his
staying away was one of the reasons for the BJP yielding the
seat to Congress.
Yeddyuappa described his four-hour long discussions with
central party leaders as "fruitful".
He defended his action in huddling about 65 MLAs in a
resort to demonstrate his strength in his comeback campaign
saying he came to know about problems faced by the legislators
in their constituencies.
"There is nothing wrong in holding meeting in a resort.
Definitely we will have more such meetings. The MLAs can even
meet him in his race course residence in future to discuss
their constituency problems," he said.
Yeddyurappa, who was forced to quit as chief minister in
July last by the central leadership over the Lokayukta report
on illegal mining, said he would continue to work for
strengthening the party.
He said he had advised Sadananda Gowda in preparing the
state`s 2012-13 budget.
According to BJP sources, Gadkari has counselled
Yeddyurappa to have patience and wait for the decision of the
party while being asked to extend support for passing the
budget in the assembly without any hurdle. The budget session
is expected to end on March 30.
PTI
