On Sadananda’s birthday, Yeddyurappa lines up a special gift

Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, in his relentless efforts to reclaim the chief minister’s gaddi, has finally played his trump card that could well see the DV Sadananda Gowda government collapse like a pack of cards. And this trump card has been dealt almost as if it’s his birthday gift to Sadananda Gowda who turned 59 on Sunday.

On Sunday evening, Yeddyurappa, along with 50 MLAs loyal to him, took to “resort politics”, and remained cocooned in Golden Palms Spa & Resort on Tumkur Road with a well-planned strategy to arm-twist the party high command into submission and reinstate him as the chief minister of Karnataka. He is literally holding the high command to ransom with a tight deadline until Monday evening.

His strategy is this: If the high command does not decide in his favour before the deadline, all the MLAs loyal to him will resign en masse on Tuesday morning when the budget session is scheduled to begin. If that happens, the Sadananda Gowda government will collapse and the state will be thrown into political turmoil.

At least 15 more MLAs are expected to join the Yeddyurappa camp on Monday, and the former chief minister is already claiming to have the support of 70 MLAs in a house of 120 BJP MLAs (including the Speaker).

If his claims are founded, he would be in line to be the legislative party leader and can stake a claim to the throne.

The timing, too, couldn’t have been better for the Yeddyurappa camp – it is all unfolding on the eve of the state’s budget session, scheduled to begin on Tuesday (March 20), with the budget being presented by Sadananda Gowda on March 21.

This turn of events has taken place in spite of Yeddyurappa’s earlier planned visit to New Delhi on Monday to impress upon the party high command that he enjoyed the support of a majority of the BJP MLAs and deserved to be the leader of the legislative party, and therefore should be reinstated as the chief minister of Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa and his loyalists believe that he should be reinstated as the chief minister as the Karnataka high court had quashed the FIR filed by Lokayukta against him based on the report on illegal mining. When Yeddyurappa was forced to resign as chief minister in August 2011 over his alleged involvement in the mining scam, the party high command had said that he could return as chief minister if his name was cleared.

His loyalists believe it is time that the high command brought back their leader as the chief minister as the high court quashing the FIR meant that his name was effectively cleared of the taint.

However, Yeddyurappa cancelled his Monday trip to New Delhi. Instead, he decided in favour of gathering his flock of loyalists and keeping them together at a resort.

He has left the job of convincing the party leadership to BJP MPs who owe allegiance to him.

They will meet party chief Nitin Gadkari on Monday in New Delhi to deliver the Monday-evening ultimatum to the party leadership to ensure that Yeddyurappa is appointed chief minister again.

Now, Gadkari and the party leadership could find themselves in a Catch-22 situation. The Central Empowered Committee on illegal mining is expected to submit its affidavit on whether to recommend a CBI probe into Yeddyurappa’s role in the illegal mining scam to Supreme Court.

If it does, and a CBI probe is indeed ordered, the BJP leadership would be in an awkward position if they reinstate Yeddyurappa as chief minister. And, if the party refuses to reinstate Yeddyurappa as chief minister, the first BJP government in the south (now with Sadananda Gowda at the helm) would be on the verge of collapse.

Meanwhile, a sad predicament faces Sadananda Gowda.
Just two days away from presenting his first state budget, he stares into an impending political disaster with Yeddyurappa pointing a gun at the party leadership’s head.