Friends help BS Yeddyurappa last another day in Karnataka

For the first time in the last three days chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had reasons to smile on Monday as his emissaries and party MPs argued vigorously with the party high command not to shunt out the chief minister.

Ministers VS Acharya, Basavaraj Bommai and MP Prabhakar Kore made a strong case in front of the BJP national bosses Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley for allowing Yeddyurappa to continue as the CM till the completion of the forthcoming taluk and zilla panchayat elections.

A group of 14 BJP Lok Sabha members and three Rajya Sabha members from the state too joined hands with them in convincing the high command to bail out Yeddyurappa.As the resistance mounted against any harsh action, Yeddyurappa ignored the high command’s 11am deadline to quit before the start of parliament session. 

Yeddyurappa made it amply clear twice on Monday that he was not going to resign—once after meeting Jaitley in the evening and, later in the night, when television channels started flashing breaking news of the CM having already submitted his resignation to the party top brass.