Troubled Karnataka BJP wants Advani to stay

The troubled Karnataka unit of the BJP, shocked by party leader L.K. Advani's decision to quit the party posts Monday, expressed hope that he would withdraw his resignations.

"Our senior leaders are trying (to persuade Advani to take back the resignation) and I am confident they will succeed," former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister Jagadish Shettar told reporters here.

BJP's first chief minister in the state B.S. Yeddyurappa, who has been highly critical of Advani, also hoped that he would withdraw the resignation.

Yeddyurappa, who quit the BJP to head the Karnataka Janata Party, holds Advani responsible for forcing him out of the chief minister's post in July 2011.

Yeddyurappa, largely credited with bringing the BJP to power in Karnataka for the first time in 2008, was made to resign over mining bribery charges.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who succeeded Shettar following the Congress' victory in the May 5 Karnataka assembly election, expressed sympathies for Advani.

"He and Atal Behari Vajpayee built the BJP. The BJP should not have treated him like this. But this development will help the Congress (in the Lok Sabha election due next year)", Siddaramaiah told reporters here.