BJP tough talk bends Yeddyurappa

Karnataka, July 30 (IBNS) After the top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a tough position and hinted that it was ready to sacrifice the government in Karnataka, illegal mining tainted chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has agreed to step down by 1 pm Sunday.

Media reports said the BJP high command told Yeddyurappa 'they were ready to sacrifice government if necessary" following which the chief minister said he would resign by 1 pm Sunday.

Yeddyurappa said he has "no plans to defy the party high command."

BJP central leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley met the Karnataka chief minister for two hours on Saturday morning and sent a strong message to the unbending chief minister.

Even after promising to resign, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa threw in new demands late Friday to his party high command, spewing yet another twist in the crisis that began on Wednesday for the BJP in the state.

After being indicted by Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde in a Rs 16,000 core illegal mining scam on Wednesday, Yeddyurappa, 68, had scrambled to New Delhi to meet senior party leaders.

However, the marching orders that he got there were apparently not taken too well by him and he hurriedly returned to Bangalore early Thursday morning, still publicly denying the possibility of resigning.

Later on Thursday while the BJP announced an "unanimous" decision that they had "advised" Yeddyurappa to resign, the embattled Chief Minister in Karnataka held emergency meetings with supportive leaders and legislators, weighing his options, media reports said.

However, on Thursday evening he wrote to BJP president Nitin Gadkari saying that as a disciplined member of the party he would abide by its decision and resign from its post on Sunday, July 31.

With the crisis seemingly under control, top BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley flew down to Bangalore on Friday as observers while local party leaders selected a new Chief Minister only to find Yeddyurappa had put up an explicit show of strength to reinstate his authority in the state.

At least 14 lawmakers and 75 state legislators threw their weight behind Yeddyurappa, well over half the BJP's field in the state, and with some of them even chanting slogans, they demanded that Yeddyurappa be retained as Chief Minister .

The demand escalated the crisis for the BJP with on one hand Yeddyurappa's indictment becoming a clear disadvantage to the party at Centre whilst on the other facing a near rebellion in one of the key and few states that the party still ruled.

Among Yeddyurappa's conditions are more time beyond Sunday to file a resignation, being made the Karnataka BJP president in place of K S Easwarappa and the head of the co-ordination committee between the party and the government.

He has also demanded that he would handpick the new chief minister of the state and his loyalists be given prime berths in the Karnataka cabinet, media reports said on Saturday morning.

According to last reports even amidst frantic meetings and negotiations, the BJP had not accepted all of Yeddyurappa's demands and is mulling suspending him if he does not resign by Sunday.