Armed with the high court verdict clearing him in an illegal mining case, Karnataka BJP strongman B. S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday hoped the party's central leadership would act on its ‘promise’ to reinstate him as chief minister as his loyalists raised the pitch for it.
"I am 100 per cent confident the high command will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time. In fact, the BJP high command has promised me to make me chief minister once I come clean from this case", he said, a day after the high court quashed an FIR against him in an illegal mining case.
The BJP Central leadership had forced Yeddyurappa to quit in July 2011 after he was indicted by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining that had caused a political storm in the state. Yeddyurappa who has sent copies of the court order to BJP President Nitin Gadkari, senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, however ruled out visiting Delhi to mount pressure on the central leadership. He also requested his supporters not to visit Delhi to drum up support and told them to leave it to the high command.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda said he would not like to comment on Yeddyurappa's reinstatement. He said he would come clean in all the cases filed against him, in an apparent rejoinder to Sadananda Gowda, who had pointed to pending cases against him.
However, Gowda clarified that his remark on cases against Yeddyurappa has been misquoted. Yeddyurappa has been in constant consultations with his loyalists since yesterday after the court pronounced its verdict and continued it today also.
State unit BJP President K. S. Eswarappa, who welcomed the order, however firmly ruled out change of guard in the state.
BJP sources said the high command is unlikely to devote time to the issue, at least till completion of the budget session, beginning Mar 20, as they are busy installing their governments in Goa and Uttarkhand.
In another development excise Minister M. P. Renukacharya, a staunch Yeddyurappa supporter today asked Gowda at the Cabinet meet to honour his promise he held out in July 2011 to quit, to which Gowda replied that the high command will decide on the matter.