Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Under immense pressure from the Congress and JD-S on controversy over de-notification of prime urban land in favour of his family members, the BJP high command has summoned Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to the national capital on Friday.
As per reports, Yeddyurappa will be arriving in the national capital today to meet the central leadership, which will discuss the crisis facing the BJP government in the state.
A decision in this regard was taken yesterday after the core group of the party met at the residence of senior leader LK Advani and discussed the current situation including dissidence in the party against Yeddyurappa who has been accused of nepotism and corruption.
Emerging from BJP's Core Group meeting, senior leader Arun Jaitley told reporters, “It was decided in the meeting that the Chief Minister and other important leaders will be called in the coming one or two days to discuss the entire subject with the central leadership”.
Besides Jaitley, the meeting was attended among others by party president Nitin Gadkari, senior leader LK Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, former party presidents Rajnath Singh and M. Venkaiah Naidu and general secretary and Bangalore South Lok Sabha member H N. Ananth Kumar.
With the BJP central leadership summoning Yedyurappa to Delhi, speculations are rife that he may be asked to quit as Chief Minister in a bid to pacify the unrelenting Opposition in the state.
The BJP central leadership is in a fix regarding the crisis in Karnataka since it has severely attacked the UPA government at the centre over corruption and has been pressing for a JPC probe into 2G spectrum scam and Adarsh society scam.
With the main opposition not willing to spare the UPA government at the centre, the ruling Congress leadership has now stepped up its attack on the BJP government in Karnataka by joining hands with JD-S led by HD Deve Gowda.
Clearly, the crisis in Karnataka is a major embarrassment for BJP, which has come at a time the party is spearheading a campaign against the central government on the issue of corruption.
The BJP high command is trying hard to find a way out of the situation. However, they are still unclear as how to deal with the situation. A section of the party leadership also thinks that removal of the Chief Minister may not be a viable option given the delicate balance in the state politics.
But if it comes to the crunch, the possibility of an alternative leader from dominant Lingayat community, to which the chief Minister belongs, cannot be ruled out.
Yeddyurappa has acknowledged that his sons, daughter, son-in-law, sister, her son and daughter-in-law have been allotted residential and industrial plots. He has, however, defended the allotment on the ground that his predecessors too had done the same.
Apparently to show he is in full command despite raging row, Yeddyurappa late Thursday appointed 37 legislators to head government-run boards and corporations.
First Published: Friday, November 19, 2010, 10:13