JOIN USWhen BSY threw in the towel
The CM made the request on Thursday afternoon at the residence of party chief Rajnath Singh, after the central leaders urged him to concede the ‘charter of 7 demands’ put forward by rebel leader Janardhana Reddy.
The meeting was attended by Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ramlal, besides Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda.
The meeting wanted Yeddyurappa to agree to the demands, which included sacking of Minister Shobha Karandlaje and Principal Secretary V P Baligar; reshuffling of district ministers, making their loyal MLAs heads of boards and corporations; reinstatement of officers shifted from Bellary; expansion of the core committee and withdrawal of the Rs 1,000 levy on trucks carrying iron ore.
There were also some “suggestions” for the CM: Personal staff of ministers should be of the choice of the Reddys, and MLAs should have direct access to the chief minister.
Yeddyurappa, however, declined to sack Shobha and Baligar in the first place, maintaining that Shobha was doing good work, and added that it was difficult to run the administration without Baligar. The meeting did not agree to this. And Yeddyurappa took Ananth Kumar and Gowda aside and sought their opinion on the matter, and both asked him to drop the two.
Yeddyurappa thereafter informed the meeting that he would sack the two. The meeting then put forth other demands. As regards the levy on trucks carrying iron ore, he refused to budge, saying it was decided at a Cabinet meeting in which the Reddys were present.
Regarding the Bellary bureaucrats who were shifted, he said he would take a decision in consultation with the Reddys, adding that efficient officers would be posted. Regarding the other demands, the CM said they would be addressed in consultation with party leaders.
However, some leaders insisted that the other demands also be agreed to immediately. At this point, Yeddyurappa was said to have expressed his inability to make any more concessions, and that he was prepared to put in his papers. “I should not have agreed to any of the demands, but I have bent only in the interests of the party,” he is said to have told the meeting.
The CM added that if the party was willing, it should wait till he presented the next budget. “After this, I will resign and work fully for anyone whom the central leadership appoints CM,” Yeddyurappa said.
He told the meeting that he was hurt that some party members had backed the “hijacking of MLAs” by the Reddys. “This happened at a time when the State was reeling under the impact of floods,” he said.
The core committee currently has five members with State party chief Sadananda Gowda as chairman. The other members are Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar and two RSS nominees — V Satish and Santosh. The committee may be enlarged to include nine more members including one of the Reddy brothers.