New Delhi: Leaders backing B S Yeddyurappa
on Sunday held talks with senior BJP leader L K Advani in the wake
of demands for the Karnataka Chief Minister`s removal by the
Bellary brothers.
Former MP Dhananjay Kumar and Karnataka Home Minister V S
Acharya called on Advani to discuss the crisis in the state.
Both the leaders are in the national capital as emissaries of
Yeddyurappa and have tried to convince the central leadership
that there should be no change of guard.
Kumar and Acharya had held a meeting with BJP general
secretary (organisation) Ramlal yesterday. They claimed that
Ramlal had assured them the incumbent Chief Minister would
continue.
Karnataka Speaker Jagadish Shettar, who is close to the
Bellary brothers -- Janardhan Reddy and G Karunakar Reddy --
met senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who is the central
leadership`s pointsman for dealing with the crisis.
Jaitley had spent three days in Karnataka last week to
resolve the crisis. After he failed to convince the
dissidents, leaders from both the camps are visiting the
Capital to find a solution to the problem.
Reddy brothers are expected to reach Delhi tomorrow while
Yeddyurappa will be here on November 4.
The Reddy brothers are rich iron ore miners from Bellary district, about 400 km from Bangalore. Their mines are mainly in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, bordering Bellary district.
The Reddy brothers want Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar to replace Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister and claim the support of 60 MLAs out of the BJP’s 117 MLAs in the Assembly.
Yeddyurappa on Saturday refused to comment on the dissidents. "The party high command has asked me to keep mum," he said.
"There is no dissidence in BJP. The only demand is that Assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar should be given some suitable position. He would be made a minister," he said.
Yeddyurappa has reportedly offered the Deputy Chief Minister’s post to Shettar but the dissidents have rejected a compromise.
Shettar has said he would not join the Yeddyurappa ministry as part of a compromise formula mooted by the party to restore peace in the state unit.
"Right now I do not contemplate resigning as it would create more confusion. I will await the outcome of my talks with party high Command," said Shettar, who met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders in Bangalore on Saturday.
"My stand has been known already and debated publicly. There will be no change in it," Shettar said.
Karnataka BJP dissidents, during their trip to Delhi, are likely to meet senior party leader L K Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who is considered to close to the Reddy brothers and once contested a Lok Sabha by-election election from Bellary, denied she had been asked to speak to the dissidents.
"I have not been deputed to talk to them. M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley have been given this responsibility and they are in touch with the group," she said.
Senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar on Saturday accused Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) of fomenting rebellion in the BJP leadership in Karnataka.
Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy, brother of Janardhana Reddy, denied reports that he was engaged in conciliatory talks with an emissary of Yeddyurappa.
"When the senior leader Arun Jaitley has already summoned all leaders for further parleys over the crisis to Delhi where is the question of holding conciliatory talks with anyone here," Karunakara Reddy told an agency in Bangalore.
Bureau Report (With Inputs of IANS)
