BS Yeddyurappa plans another show of strength

Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa is planning to stay away from the BJP core committee meeting called by the party’s national president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on March 3.

The meeting has been held in the backdrop of the crisis in the state BJP because of Yeddyurappa’s demand to reward him with a post. The former chief minister’s loyalists are divided over whether or not he should attend the meeting. A meeting held at Yeddyurappa’s residence on Thursday—attended by ministers MP Renukacharya, CM Udasi, Umesh Katti and Basavaraj Bommai—ended without arriving at a decision in this regard.

After the Thursday’s meeting, Yeddyurappa said he had not decided if he would go to Delhi for the core committee meeting as Gadkari had not yet finalised its schedule. He said he would take a call after the meeting’s schedule was fixed.

Sources said Yeddyurappa would probably skip the meeting on Saturday on health grounds. Also, the sources said the former chief minister was reluctant to campaign for the party candidate in Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha by-poll, which is scheduled for March 18.

Meanwhile, his supporters are planning to organise a massive rally in Hubli on March 11. Their previous plan to organise a similar show in Bangalore on February 27, Yeddyurappa’s birthday, was dropped as Gadkari arrived in the city on that day to chair the brainstorming session to defuse the crisis that erupted because of the former CM’s demand of reinstatement.