Yeddyurappa praises Gandhi family, ridicules Gadkari

Heaping embarrassment on the BJP, former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Friday praised the Nehru-Gandhi family leadership and ridiculed his own party chief Nitin Gadkari for going back on his words.

"The Congress leadership - from Pandit Nehru to Sonia Gandhi - keep the promises they have made for their party leaders. This is a great quality," Yeddyurappa said here as Gadkari and other BJP leaders attended a party meet at Surajkund in Haryana.

"Till Atal Behari Vajpayee's time this was the case in BJP also. But not now," said Yeddyurappa, whose efforts to become chief minister again or to be made state BJP chief have been rebuffed by Gadkari and others.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's first chief minister in the state, who quit in July 2011 over mining bribery charges, Yeddyruppa slammed Gadkari for making lofty speeches but acting otherwise.

Referring to Gadkari's speech at Surajkund that the "party was above the individual", he said he did not need the BJP to become the chief minister again.

Strongly hinting that he has made up his mind to quit BJP, he accused Gadkari of "encouraging confusion" in the state unit.

He also attacked L.K. Advani, saying the senior BJP leader was acting according to the wishes of party general secretary and Bangalore South Lok Sabha member H. N. Ananth Kumar.