Yeddyurappa makes BJP's old office his new nest

Will vacate his lucky house of 8 years on Race Course Road

B S Yeddyurappa is at it again. This time, the former chief minister has decided to inaugurate a public contact office and will also be vacating his Race Course Road residence, which is a government bungalow.

The timing of Yeddyurappa’s decision to open a separate office has raised many eyebrows.

Four days ago, the former chief minister had said he had kept in abeyance his decision to resign from the party. He has also been venting out his ire against Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, party State president K S Eshwarappa and party national general secretary Ananth Kumar for all the ills he is facing.

Usually, an MLA has his office in his constituency and going by that convention, Yeddyurappa should have an office in Shikaripur. So, is the opening of this new office a step towards saying goodbye to the BJP or is it to divide the BJP?

Yeddyurappa, however, defended his move before the media, saying: “I have not been given any responsibility in the party, so it will not be right on my part to sit in the party office. At the same time, I am vacating my Race Course Road residence on June 1. I was in need of a place to meet my supporters and well wishers.” He also insisted that his move did not have any political connotations.

Yeddyurappa has zeroed in on the BJP’s old office near 17th cross, Malleswaram, as his new office.

His detractors have dubbed the office as a ‘parallel BJP office’. The BJP had recently vacated its old office to shift to its new headquarters - Jagannath Bhavan - also in Malleswaram. He is likely to sit in the office from 10 am to 5 pm to meet his associates.

Yeddyurappa’s new office will be inaugurated at 9 am on Friday and a host of his loyalists are likely to be present.

Portraits of A B Vajpayee, Abdul Kalam, Abdul Bukhari of Jama Masjid, the Arch Bishop among others adorn the walls of the office. The party used to consider this as their ‘lucky building’ since they came to power while working out of this office.

The former chief minister will not be paying rent for the new office built on a 60x40 ft site as it is owned by BJP MLC Lehar Singh, his aide.

Yeddyurappa will be moving out of the government quarters on #2, Race View Cottage on Race Course Road, eight years after he moved in.

As per the rules, Yeddyurappa was supposed to vacate the quarters within 60 days of stepping down.

But he continued to occupy the quarters even 10 months after his resignation since he believed the house was lucky for him.

He rose to become the first BJP chief minister in South India while staying in this house. Yeddyurappa will now be residing at his Dollar’s Colony bungalow.

Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa has been putting up a brave front despite the intensified CBI probe.

While he spent most of the time on Wednesday giving interviews to television channels, on Thursday he had dosas with his close loyalists Suresh Gowda, S R Vishwanath and a few others at Central Tiffin Room at Malleswaram 7th cross. But this too, he did in the presence of television cameras.