Yeddyurappa supporters even went to the extent of asking BJP observers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley to reconsider the decision to remove him from the chair.
Meanwhile latest report suggest that BJP high command Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to resign forthwith or face expulsion from the party.
A large number of MLAs and MPs who have been camping at defiant Yeddyurappa’s house demanded that their leader should be allowed to continue as chief minister. They claimed the support of 73 MLAs and 15 MPs and wanted three to four days to decide.
An angry Yeddyurappa reluctantly met Jaitley and Rajnath and refused to step down without nominating a person of his choice as the next Chief Minister.
The Yeddyurappa faction even went to the extent of asking the BJP observers to reconsider the decision to remove him from the chair. They urged the party bosses to trash the Lokayukta report on him.
Meanwhile the BJP legislative party meeting that was scheduled on Friday evening to elect Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s successor was cancelled. Central BJP observers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley held series of meetings with the party MLAs. Sources in the BJP said, that some MLAs and MPs have expressed their desire to retain Yeddyurappa as their leader in the state. But BJP party observer for Karnataka Dharmendra Pradhan said the Parliamentary Board decision seeking the resignation of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is final and the change in leadership will be smooth. He denied that parallel meetings were being held in the city and factionism had crept in to the party.
The legislative party meeting that was scheduled on Friday is said to be re-scheduled on Saturday. The sources in the BJP party say that party High Command is insisting on the resignation of Yeddyurappa first, before heeding to his demands. Openly nobody is willing to say anything about the efforts to elect their new leader. In another development Revenue Minister G. Karunakar Reddy met Governor Hamsaraj Bharadwaj to explain his position in the background of Lokayuktha report indicting him for illegal mining. He has defended himself saying that the Obalapuram Mining Company named by the report is not owned or managed by him as he resigned from its Board in 2004.