The dissidents, who had held a meeting late on Wednesday night at a senior leader’s residence in the city, congregated again on Thursday.
Even before the dust and din kicked up by byelections to three assembly constituencies have settled down, the dissidents in the ruling BJP have intensified their ‘BS Yeddyurappa hatao, BJP bachao’ campaign by resuming secret meetings in various places.
The dissidents, who had held a meeting late on Wednesday night at a senior leader’s residence in the city, congregated again on Thursday.
There was a pause in the rebel activities in the BJP, following a directive from the high command to the dissidents to lie low till the bypolls are over.
Dharmendra Pradhan, who is in charge of the state BJP affairs, is expected to arrive in Bangalore next week.
The campaign against Yeddyurappa is expected to gain further momentum after the three-day Veerashiva Convention starting at Suttur from April 17.
Karnataka chief minister Yeddyurappa is expected to invite all Lingayat MLAs to the Veerashiva meet and seek their continued support. The dissidents are also expected to head to Delhi with several senior leaders to exert greater pressure on the party high command on the issue of change of leadership.
“Last month, when dissidents had raised their voice, the high command had suggested that they wait till the byelections get over. It was expected that the Lokayukta enquiry on the land scam allegations against the chief minister too would also be over by that time. The byelections are over, but the chief minister has, through his son-in-law, obtained a stay on the inquiry against him. It will take a long time for the probe report to come out. So we will explain our grievances to the high command and insist on a change in leadership,” said a senior minister who is in the dissident camp.
In the meantime, state BJP chief KS Eshwarappa met RSS leader Mangesh Bende in Hubli and discussed the dissident activities in the party. According to sources, he communicated the views of the dissident MLAs to Bende and requested him to put forth the views of the dissidents before the RSS chief.
Eshwarappa, BJP national secretary Ananth Kumar, rural development and panchayat raj minister Jagadish Shettar and tourism minister Janardhana Reddy are said to be in constant touch with each other and are preparing the ground to oust Yeddyurappa.
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