There is not much doubt among the party top brass that the tainted chief minister will, indeed, tender resignation. But, they are not sure as to when he will do so.
Hence, while the two top central leaders will oversee election of the new leader, they are prepared to wait for a day for the BJP Legislature Party meeting to decide on the new
leader. “The two leaders will not hold the official BJP LP meeting until Yeddyurappa resigns and they arrive at a consensus on the future chief minister. Nor will they fix a deadline for the chief minister to quit, although they want it to be done before August 1 (when the Parliament reopens). They are going with an open mind on the future leader”, said a BJP source in the know of the developments. Jaitley and Singh are scheduled to leave Delhi at 10.30 am.
The leadership here believes that the embattled chief miniser is holding on to his post only to extract his pound of flesh. His wish list includes: he should be allowed to chose his successor, larger say in the formation of the next cabinet and he be made the State party chief.
The party, sources say, would not really be averse to give him a larger say in the first two demands but has ruled out his becoming the BJP State chief, given the taint he is carrying after the Lokayukta’s indictment.
It is understood that on Wednesday, the CM was given four names to choose from as his successor. They include V S Acharya, Suresh Kumar, K S Eshwarappa and Jagdish Shettar. But all the names were rejected by him. Sources added that Yeddyurappa had been putting pressure on the party central leadership to make his son as his successor or his confidant.
