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This Article is From Nov 01, 2009

BJP's southern discomfort reaches Delhi

Bangalore: The Karnataka BJP's crisis has now reached Delhi. Representatives of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday met senior party leaders in the capital.

They claimed they have been assured that Yeddyurappa would not be removed in the wake of dissidence in the state unit.

Dhananjay Kumar and Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya held separate meetings with L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Speaker Jagadish Shettar, who is representing the dissidents lead by Bellary brothers Janardhan Reddy and G Karunakar Reddy, held a meeting with Jaitley and Karnataka MP Ananth Kumar.

The BJP government in Karnataka spun into a crisis after the Reddy brothers demanded Chief Minister Yeddyrurappa's ouster, claiming they have the support of 60 of the BJP's 117 MLAs.

The two camps have clashed publicly several times in the last few months, with the Reddy brothers accusing Yeddyurappa of being dictatorial, and not giving them enough space in how they run their ministries.

The latest confrontation comes after the chief minister, who's trying to raise money for flood relief work, introduced new taxes on trucks. That hits the Reddy brothers' mining business hard. Openly defying him, G Janardhana Reddy and G Karunakara Reddy have organized parallel relief operations for homes and families struck by floods in Bellary, their home turf.

Earlier this week, central party leader Arun Jaitley was sent to Bangalore to negotiate peace. Jaitley openly backed Yeddyurappa, praising his work as chief minister.

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