The RSS, which initially threw its weight behind the CM, suddenly backed out and asked the BJP to take a call on its own. It was, in a way, a blessing in disguise for Yeddyurappa. Why? The answer is simple: there is no Sonia Gandhi in the BJP.
At a hush-hush meeting of senior BJP and RSS leaders in New Delhi last week, Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s fate had more or less been decided.
The RSS leaders were convinced that there was a slanderous campaign against Yeddyurappa. After deliberating for a while, the RSS leaders had made up their mind: Yeddyurappa will remain the chief minister, no matter what. It was also decided that the assembly will be dissolved if the BJP was left with no options but to replace Yeddyurappa.
By Friday, however, things took a different turn. The party leadership in Delhi summoned Yeddyurappa to discuss the charges against him. Yeddyurappa’s continuance in office was becoming untenable as it was blunting the Opposition’s attack on the UPA government over the 2G scam, Adarsh Society land misappropriation and Commonwealth Games scandal. “A lot of ifs and buts were being attached to Yeddyurappa’s continuance in office,” a political leader from Delhi told DNA.
There was also this small matter of a letter that the chief minister had written to the BJP parliamentary board. Yeddyurappa’s emissary had presented the letter to RSS and BJP leaders at the meeting in Jhandewalan (RSS headquarters in New Delhi). In short, Yeddyurappa had blamed the BJP MP from Bangalore South, HN Ananth Kumar, the editor of a widely read Kannada daily and the owner of a Kannada TV channel for trying to destabilise his government. “The duo (the MP and the TV channel owner) is doing what the JD(S) and Congress could not do in the state — destabilising the government,” he wrote.
Yeddyurappa also complained to the leadership that a protege of Ananth Kumar, Arvind Limbavali, had offered the chief ministership to state party chief KS Eshwarappa. (News of this letter has been doing the rounds in journalistic circles for over a week. Yeddyurappa denied that he had written any such letter. However, a copy of the letter is with DNA.)
The letter’s target, however, was the Reddy brothers. Yeddyurappa’s contention was that although the Reddys were looting the state of its mineral resources, “the name of my family is dragged in imaginary corruption cases just to cover up their misdeeds”.
The chief minister got a little miffed after he realised that his letter had not had the desired effect on the party leadership and he had been summoned to Delhi.
Party sources told DNA that by Friday evening the chief minister had made up his mind to resign and, if push came to shove, torpedo the BJP boat.
The only consolation that Yeddyurappa had till this time was that BJP leader Arun Jaitley and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi were by his side. It is common knowledge that party president Nitin Gadkari has a soft corner for Yeddyurappa. But when the party leadership scrutinised the papers that HD Kumaraswamy was leaking to a section of the media, it realised that Yeddyurappa was indefensible.
All of a sudden, the RSS leaders backed out of the game and asked the BJP to take a call on its own. Which, in a way, was a blessing in disguise for Yeddyurappa. Why? Because there is no Sonia Gandhi in the BJP.
A lot of names suddenly started floating around. Political analysts in Delhi said Ananth Kumar started pitching for himself as chief minister (and that may have helped Yeddyurappa, they feel). On Sunday, when the BJP had more or less made up its mind to sack Yeddyurappa, a CD was released to a Kannada channel. The CD showed Janardhana Reddy talking to a man claiming to be governor HR Bhardwaj’s emissary. That CD had been shown to BJP leaders at the Golden Palm resort when a handful of dissident MLAs were camping there. The party had then decided to release the CD at an “appropriate time”.
“By this time, nobody knew what was happening or who was taking the call,” a party leader from Delhi told DNA. But one thing was clear: the CD had had its desired effect.
On Monday, Yeddyurappa landed up in Puttaparthi, instead of in Delhi. Reports said he struck a deal with the PM on board his special aircraft on their way to Delhi, but anybody who knows how Manmohan Singh works will dismiss that news as bunkum. Back in Delhi, a view was emerging that sacking Yeddyurappa would mean giving in to Kumaraswamy. Anyway, the party wanted to wait for the Bihar election results to be out before announcing the decision.
On Wednesday, when it was clear that the JD(U)-BJP combine would romp home with over 200 seats, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar announced the party’s decision: Yeddyurappa will stay the chief minister.
The only question: For how long?
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}