New Delhi:
After hanging in the balance for days, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa's political lifeline is likely to be extended.
Sources have told NDTV that the BJP leaders have decided Yeddyurappa will stay Chief Minister as of now. Sources also say the BJP is hammering out a face-saving formula for itself, that will justify letting Yeddyurappa stay on as Chief Minister. In a meeting on Monday evening, party chief Nitin Gadkari discussed the plan with Yeddyurappa.
A short while before that, after meeting with the top brass of his party, Gadkari announced he will take a final decision on Yeddyurappa on Wednesday morning.
"I have completed discussion with all the leaders and will take a final decision on Yeddyurappa tomorrow morning at 11 am," said Gadkari.
Party sources say that most of the BJP's Members of Parliament from Karnataka have told the party that Yeddyurappa should not be fired on the basis of allegations by the Opposition. (
Read: Karnataka BJP MPs pledge support to Yeddyurappa)
At the BJP's parliamentary party meeting this morning, MPs suggested that this is not the right time for the chief minister's exit - panchayat elections are around the corner, and Yeddyurappa's dismissal could signal to a party besieged by infighting that dissent can win the day.
The chief minister is accused of misusing his office to grant prime property in and around Bangalore to his family members and companies linked to them. The Opposition in Karnataka, headed by HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), has been releasing a barrage of documents that show how Yeddyurappa denotified or "unlocked" government land that was reserved for public projects to benefit his family.
He announced last week that his family would return the land. He has also asked a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court to look into all allotments of government land made in the last few years.
Yeddyurappa's new offering to follow the party line is in sharp contrast to last night when he said, upon arriving in Delhi that nobody has asked him to resign.
Yeddyurappa has reportedly told the party that he cannot be removed - he says he delivered the state to the BJP on the basis of his mass appeal. He has also been able to prove that the majority of the MLAs in Karnataka back him. (
Read: BJP's Yeddyurappa dilemma)
Today, he said emphatically that he was "not blackmailing anyone," and that he had done no wrong and that he had not set any conditions. "Today I am going to meet all our national leaders...whatever decision our national leaders are going to take for me I am going to obey...but so far nobody has asked for my resignation," he said.
Yeddyurappa then met senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu this morning and the latter too said that Yeddyurappa "is a people's person and will not defy the party."