Yeddyurappa ready for another party?

Speculation is rife that beleaguered former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa is distancing himself—literally and practically—from the BJP, the very party he helped come to power in Karnataka in 2008, marking its first in South India. And these don’t stop at just distancing—there is a growing feeling among his loyalists that Yeddyurappa is on course to quit the BJP to form a new party under the banner of which he plans to contest the forthcoming assembly elections.

One omen of Yeddyurappa going his own way is his plan to set up his own office in the BJP’s old office premises on 17th Cross, Malleswaram, despite the BJP’s party office located just a kilometre away on 11th Cross Temple Street in Malleswaram, where it shifted to on April 2011, ahead of LK Advani’s visit to Bangalore.

Yeddyurappa’s latest plan has led many to wonder why he needs a separate office when a BJP office already exists. Yeddyurappa’s new office is scheduled to be inaugurated today.

Yeddyurappa loyalists said the inauguration of his own, but separate, office is timed to coincide with the Friday visit of BJP’s Karnataka in-charge, Dharmendra Pradhan, and party general secretary, Arun Jaitley (whose plan is tentative), to Bangalore to try and resolve the ongoing crisis.

Yeddyurappa is keeping his cards close to his chest although he has referred to his much-rumoured exit from BJP as a “mere speculation”.
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However, BP Harish, a close associate of Yeddyurappa, on Thursday said Yeddyurappa and former minister B Sriramulu will unite in the coming days.

“Yeddyurappa has sacrificed a lot to bring BJP to power in Karnataka. Even Janardhan Reddy and Sriramulu had worked hard to strengthen the party in the state. In the coming days Yeddyurappa and Sriramulu will unite and you will see changes in the state politics,” he said, but refrained from commenting on Yeddyurappa trying to form a new party.

Sriramulu, too, denied that he would join BSY or BJP. “BJP is ruining the state and there is no question of joining hands with either BJP or Yeddyurappa,” he said.
But Yeddyurappa said he had hired BJP’s old office to interact with supporters and the general public over the coming days. “On June 1, I am vacating the Race Course Road residence where hundreds of people from across the state came to meet me. Once I move to my Dollars Colony residence, I won’t be able to accommodate all of them, so I have decided to hire our old BJP office in Malleswaram,” he said, adding “As I hold no post in the state BJP it may be wrong on my part to use the party office to interact with the people.”

However, sources in BJP said Yeddyurappa has been “very upset” with his party leaders both in the state and at the national level who he felt had sidelined him after he the post of chief minister while facing a slew of corruption charges.

But they said he has a battalion of MLAs who are ready to fight the assembly elections under his leadership. His loyalists feel that Yeddyurappa in all likelihood announce the formation of his new party after he completes state wide tour in the coming days.

Sonia Gandhi’s photo found in Yeddyurappa's new office
People who visited Yeddyurappa's new office on Thursday were surprised to find Sonia Gandhi's photo there. The photo was taken when Gandhi had visited Mysore’s Infosys campus during Yeddyurappa’s term as chief minister of the state. Yeddyurappa had shared the dais with Narayana Murthy and Sonia and the former chief minister had then praised congress chief saying that she always came to the rescue of leaders facing allegations in her party and that BJP leaders lacked that quality. Yeddyurappa loyalists who realised the goof-up, later removed Sonia Gandhi’s photo. Interestingly, photos of RSS leaders and LK Advani photos were missing in his the office.