Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) President B S Yeddyurappa, who has been threatening to pull down the Jagadish Shettar government, is planning to give a series of jolts to the ruling party by making a BJP legislator quit the party every other day.
On Friday, Basavaraj Patil Attur, the BJP MLA representing the Basavakalyana Assembly constituency in Bidar district and a loyalist of Yeddyurappa announced that he would tender his resignation to the primary membership of the party and also quit as MLA to join the KJP.
Yeddyurappa is learnt to have sounded his loyalist MLAs that at least some of them resign when he tours their district over the next few days. Those who have been approached include the 14 legislators who shared the dias with Yeddyurappa at the formal launch of KJP in Haveri on December 9.
The announcement by Attur, a former minister, comes a day after senior BJP leaders including Shettar and Ananth Kumar took a dig at the January 4 deadline set by Yeddyurappa to topple the government. He was minister when the undivided Janata Dal was in power.
“I have decided to resign my Assembly membership. I will send my resignation letter to the Speaker K G Bopaiah by fax and meet him in person on January 4,” Attur told reporters in Basavakalyana in the presence of Yeddyurappa.
Attur also attended the “Janasnehi” programme organised by the KJP leader. Yeddyurappa announced that Attur would be KJP’s candidate from Basavakalyana in the coming Assembly polls.
Yeddyurappa’s plan of action, according to sources close to him, is to build the tempo till January 4 by getting at least three to four BJP MLAs to quit and keep the government on tenterhooks. As part of his political game plan, a couple of ministers in the Shettar Cabinet would resign sometime after January 10. Yeddyurappa does not want Shettar to present the budget and wants to pull down the government before February, KJP sources said.
BJP meet
On its part, the BJP has decided to adopt a wait and watch policy. The party through its Sangh functionaries has been trying to convince legislators identified with Yeddyurappa to remain in the party and they would be given ticket for the assembly polls.
Besides, even if five to ten legislators quit, the government would remain in majority as the overall strength of the assembly would also come down.
The Congress has 71 and the JD(S) 26 MLAs. There are five Independents who were in the Yeddyurappa Cabinet. But now they are inclined to be the Congress candidates for the next Assembly elections. Hence the BJP getting the support of the Independents to get stability may be a distant dream.
The present strength of the BJP is 118 including the Speaker. There are two vacancies in the 224-member Lower House. The party has convened its core-committee meeting in Bangalore on January 5.