The BJP central leadership is divided on the Yeddyurappa issue. While a majority section wants him expelled from the party, others are in favour of exercising caution.
Sources, meanwhile, disclosed that Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had emerged as the main fundraiser of the BJP, “is now trying to extract his pound of flesh”. It was learnt that the former chief minister and his son made it clear to the BJP leadership, particularly senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu, that it was “time to pay back”. As the former chief minister continued to press for his nominee, Mr Sadanand Gowda, to replace him, senior leaders Arun Jaitley and former party chief Rajnath Singh left for Bengaluru on Tuesday evening to deal with the crisis. The BJP is expected to decide on Mr Yeddyurappa’s replacement by Thursday.
Though senior leaders, including Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Arun Jaitley and Ms Sushma Swaraj, are against him, they are apparently “scared to expel Yeddyurappa as he is threatening to destabilise the BJP”, sources said.
A debate is also raging within the party on why the top leadership lacked an “action plan” to deal with Mr Yeddyurappa.
“They expected Yeddyurappa to toe the party line like an obedient soldier,” a senior party functionary said. Also, the party failed to prevent Mr Yeddyurappa from leaving for Bengaluru after his July 28 meeting with the top leadership in New Delhi.
It was learnt that neither Mr Singh, nor Mr Jaitley, nor BJP chief Nitin Gadkari took any other Karnataka leader into confidence, deciding instead to deal with Mr Yeddyurappa on their own.
A senior BJP functionary dealing with the Karnataka crisis, however, claimed that at this juncture “not more than five MLAs would quit the BJP if Yeddyurappa was expelled”. It was also claimed that while the MLAs who switched sides from the Congress and JD(S) “are loyal to Yeddyurappa, the original saffron men are against him”.