Bangalore/New Delhi: Amidst indications that his party might consider replacing him, beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today appeared to strike a defiant note saying he has the support of 120 MLAs and that there was no successor for him.
"In the evening, I will go to Delhi to meet our party members and give all details about Karnataka affairs. 110-120 MLAs are with me, not 10 or 20 or 40 people. Nobody is going to Delhi, just myself," he told reporters here.
Yeddyurappa, who is facing land scam charges, made the remarks after holding confabulations with his loyalists, including some ministers, at his official residence where they pledged their support to him and urged him to oppose any move to replace him.
"I will go to Delhi. I will meet (Arun) Jaitley, I will meet Sushma (Swaraj). I will meet (L K) Advani. It is my duty as the Chief Minister (to do so). The only successor is B S Yeddyurappa," the Chief Minister said.
He said he had trust in BJP high command, which is understood to be weighing the options over keeping him in office in the wake of the charges against him.
Sources said Ministers R Ashok, Katta Subramanaya Naidu, C M Udasi, Basavaraj Bommai and Govind Karjol and a few MLAs were present at the meeting.
Emerging from the meeting, Yeddyurappa said there was no need for him lead a delegation of ministers and legislators to Delhi to demonstrate his strength.
However, Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar, who is being projected as an alternative to Yeddyurappa in the event of his exit, and Ministers and mining magnets -- Janardhana Reddy, Karunakara Reddy, B Sreeramulu -- who had led a campaign for leadership change last year, did not attend the
meeting.
BJP divided over BSY
Senior party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely and Rajnath Singh met on Sunday at party president Nitin Gadkari's residence to take a decision on Yeddyurappa.
Sources are telling CNN-IBN that the BJP top brass is divided over Yeddyurappa's sacking. Party sources pointing out that Yeddyurappa has already surrendered land. He may however be asked to explain his stand on allegations that payments were made by the mining lobby to companies owned by his sons. Yeddyurappa says all allegations will be probed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
Yeddyurappa could resign tonight or tomorrow morning, wait for a probe to get over and if clean come back as CM.
So who is likely to replace Yeddyurappa? Sources say since most BJP MLAs are from the Lingayat community
Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar, a lingayat, is clearly the front-runner
The name of Law Minister Suresh Kumar is also doing the rounds.
Former state unit chief Sadananda Gowda, who is considered close to the CM, is also in the race.
BSY attacks Gowda
Continuing his diatribe against former prime minister and JD-S Chief H D Deve Gowda and his son H D Kumaraswamy, who have been levelling charges of land scams against him and his family, Yeddyurappa said he would launch a campaign to expose the "misdeeds" of JDS.
"In the coming days, I will launch a campaign to expose the misdeeds of JD-S and educate people that there should be only two parties -- BJP and Congress in the country. I will also strive for strengthening BJP at all levels", he said.
Yeddyurappa labelled JD-S as a party of "looters" and said both the father and sons were a bane of state politics who had "harassed" several former chief ministers and leaders, including Ramakrishna Hegde, J H Patel and S R Bommai. He termed the allegations against him as "baseless" and said
Kumaraswamy was indulging in "revenge politics".
According to sources, several ministers and MLAs have already booked their tickets to travel to Delhi this evening even as top BJP leaders met in the capital and decided to summon the Chief Minister.
(With PTI inputs)
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