BSY puts Cong game in play

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In three separate meetings that were kept under wraps, Congress officials have secretly reached out to the BJP strongman and former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in a bid to ensure his exit from the state’s ruling party and end any chances of the BJP’s return to power in 2013 assembly polls, top level sources have told this newspaper. The sources privy to the meetings have revealed that the Congress strategy is aimed at “making BSY a suicide bomber,” destroying the BJP from within.

Mr Yeddyurappa, still smarting after being forced to step down as chief minister last year, following charges of corruption, is the BJP’s star campaigner, credited with bringing the BJP to power for the first time in the south, and behind a string of victories in parliamentary and bypolls. He ensured the exit of his hand-picked chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda for not toeing his line, and installed his own man Jagadish Shettar, a fellow Lingayat, in a bid to deflect criticism from his Lingayat constituency that he had chosen a Gowda over a Lingayat, the first time. However, he is concerned that the party, reluctant to make him state party chief will leave him with no power over ticket distribution in the upcoming polls.

The Congress which has no Lingayat leader of Mr Yeddyurappa’s stature has asked him to quit the BJP before negotiations can begin on what role the former chief minister could play in the future, particularly in crucial parliamentary polls in 2014. Insiders said the Congress team who met Mr Yeddyurappa included the Union minister of state for railways, K.H. Muniyappa, former MP Sachidananda Swamy and Tumkur BJP MP G.S. Basavaraj who held three rounds of secret meetings with Mr Yeddyurappa in Bengaluru between June 21 and July 31, soon after the High Court gave Mr Yeddyurappa anticipatory bail on June 21. Top level sources further said that Mr Yeddyurappa indicated he may be amenable to supporting the Congress, if cases against him were diluted.