The majority of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of Parliament seem to have rallied behind chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
At a meeting held at Karnataka Bhavan here on Monday, several MPs felt that Mr Yeddyurappa should continue at least till the elections to panchayati raj bodies which are due in late December.
Of the 19 MPs, Bengaluru South MP, Ananth Kumar, Raichur MP, Fakirappa and Bellary MP, J. Shantha seem to have boycotted the meeting. All the three MPs belong to the Ananth Kumar-Janardhan Reddy camp.
A few of the MPs were emboldened enough to say that Mr Yeddyurappa needed to clarify some of the genuine doubts that arose in the minds of political leaders.
However, in his reply, Mr Yeddyurappa defended his action and reiterated that he did nothing wrong.
Sources said that majority of the Lingayat MPs felt that since the state government ordered a judicial probe and Mr Yeddyurappa surrendered land allotted to the family, there was no need for Mr Yeddyurappa to resign at this juncture.
Sources also said that strong defence put up on behalf of Mr Yeddyurappa by a batch of ministers loyal to Mr Yeddyurappa and MLAs from the ruling BJP may have won the day.
The central leaders who had almost decided to remove Mr Yeddyurappa from the chief minister’s post, heeded the local leaders and changed their mind.
“At least, they have agreed to hear us and Mr Yeddyurappa. I think situation may change within a day or two,” one of the ministers accompanying the Karnataka chief minister said.