We did not demand Yeddyurappa’s reinstatement: BJP MPs

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has denied that he has signed a document asking the BJP high command to consider re-appointing BS Yeddyurappa as the chief minister.

He agreed that a few party leaders had approached him with a document that read Yeddyurappa should be given a position that befits his stature and contribution to the party. He asserted there was no mention of reinstating Yeddyurappa as the CM. He said two other MPs, Prahlad Joshi and Anant Kumar Hegde, too, must have signed the letter.

Meanwhile, the state BJP’s decision to cancel the suspension of three rebel MLAs—Nagendra, Suresh Babu and Somashekar Reddy—who had worked against the party in the Bellary by-poll has shocked the partymen in coastal districts.

“Instead of accepting them back into the party, they should have undertaken another round of Operation Kamala, which was more honourable,” said Sathishchandra Poojary, a BJP worker from Malpe Udupi.

Urimajalu Ram Bhat, veteran BJP leader and mentor of chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda, said the party president KS Eshwarappa’s act of accepting the rebel MLAs shows utter helplessness of the BJP, “which is unlike the party that we have seen. This will spur anti-party activities all over,” he said.

Prabhakar Kamath from Kumta, said they could not fathom why the party’s central leadership was keeping quiet. He said they had complained about the rebels to the party’s top brass through RSS and VHP but they did not answer. Kamath said this decision might lead to the situation wherein party workers would freely shift their loyalty to another party during election and still claim they were with the BJP.