Dismissing the speculation that the chief minister may be replaced, the party top brass is learnt to have decided on Tuesday that Yeddyurappa would not be disturbed for now.
While the leadership has agreed to the chief minister’s request not to send any central leaders, including Karnataka in-charge general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan, to Bangalore, it asked the dissident legislators not to create any further problems.
Yeddyurappa called on BJP president Nitin Gadkari and senior leader Arun Jaitley. Party sources said during his talks with the two leaders, he complained against national party general secretary Ananth Kumar and state unit president K S Eshwarappa, alleging that the two leaders were trying to destabilise his government by instigating legislators.
He urged the central leadership to ask Eswarappa not to hold meetings with legislators till the by-elections were over and promised to meet them after the elections.
A section of MPs from Karnataka—mainly Yeddyurappa loyalists—met Gadkari and requested him to advise leaders of both camps to sink their differences in the interests of the party.
Gadkari is understood to have told the MPs that the leadership felt that the chief minister was still capable of taking decisions and run the state.
A senior MP said Gadkari was very clear that there would be no change. “We learnt that Ananth Kumar was not authorised by the party to hold meetings with MPs and MLAs” and that Eswarappa had been advised not to indulge in dissident activity.
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