Chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa stumped his supporters and detractors alike by announcing his plans to pole vault into national politics on Wednesday.
The chief minister picked his home turf, Shikaripur, to speak about his imminent foray into national politics while campaigning for ruling party candidates in zila and taluk panchayat polls and repeated it at a press conference later on.
“I will complete my term as chief minister, install a BJP government again (after next Assembly polls) and move to the Centre. I am interested in serving as a member of Rajya Sabha,” he said, taking his party completely by surprise as speculation mounted on whether this was the secret deal he had reached with the BJP’s top leadership during his Delhi parleys that allowed him to stay on until local body elections were over.
Mr Yeddyurappa, who has weathered many a crisis to lead the party to success in seven consecutive polls, did clarify that he was not making this statement under pressure from central leadership.
The timing of the announcement-on the eve of local body polls and with elections to the Legislative Assembly scheduled two-and-half years later-raised several questions among his lieutenants and critics.
While his camp-followers disclosed that he nursed ambitions of making it to national politics, his rivals dismissed it as an attempt to divert the attention of voters from charges of corruption against the government and himself.