Yeddyurappa, Eshwarappa play to the gallery

The two leaders, who have not been seeing eye-to-eye for the last few months, played to the gallery and even pledged to work “together”, before the Rambhapuri mutt seer.

Eshwarappa, who has emerged as a leader among the disgruntled legislators seeking Yeddyurappa’s ouster, set the histrionics rolling at the inauguration of Maithradevi Yeddyurappa Convention Hall organised by the Sri Madveerashaiva Research Association in Bangalore. “Nobody is out to remove Yeddyurappa as the chief minister. He has groomed me and he is the reason for what I am today. Betraying him is like betraying my own father,” Eshwarappa declared.

But he acknowledged there were problems within the party and said he had visited Delhi to sort them out. “It is my job as the state president to rectify these problems. When did I say I went to Delhi to seek change of leadership?” he asked.

Blaming the media for speculating on the internal affairs of the party, Eshwarappa said: “The media on a day-to-day basis has been speculating stating that secret meetings are being held. Are we lovers to hold secret meetings?”

Then came the candid remark from the BJP chief. “Yes, I am fighting with him (Yeddyurappa). But only because his mistakes affect not only him, but also all of us. I am positive that we can sit and sort this out,” he said.

In a lighter vein, Eshwarappa remarked that Yeddyurappa was aware that he was a “crude man”, but he had vowed in front of all the mutt heads that he would never go against the chief minister.

Yeddyurappa remarked that he and Eshwarappa had worked together from a young age and had never imagined that they would hold the reins of power one day. “You have to understand that he (Eshwarappa) quit his post as a minister to strengthen the party. We are all together and we want to turn Karnataka into a model state,”Yeddyurappa said.