BJP leaders to press for BSY reinduction at Mumbai meet

Top BJP leaders in the State are likely to urge the party’s national president Rajnath Singh in Mumbai on Tuesday to take an earlydecision on the return of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to the party fold.

BJP State president Pralhad Joshi, former chief ministers D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar, party national general secretary Ananth Kumar among others are attending a special core-committee meeting of the State unit to be held in the presence of Singh on Tuesday. Besides Karnataka, the core-committee meetings of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa will also be held in Mumbai.

A senior leader attending the meeting said the party’s State unit has already made it clear to the central leadership that it has no objection to the return of Yeddyurappa to the BJP. It was for the BJP parliamentary board to take a final decision, he said and added that the same would be conveyed to Singh.

While Yeddyurappa is himself keen on merging the KJP with BJP, several of his party colleagues, including Shobha Karandlaje, Dhananjay Kumar, B R Patil and Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli are opposed to the move, KJP insiders said.

The meeting will discuss the State unit’s preparations for the Lok Sabha polls. The State leaders held an informal meeting ahead of the Mumbai core-committee meeting, in Bangalore on Monday.