BSY demands dissolution of Assembly, polls

With the coalition partners Congress and the JD(S) closely guarding their MLAs, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday demanded dissolution of the Assembly and called for fresh elections.

“It’s better if they (government) dissolve the Assembly and go for fresh elections. We will welcome it,” Yeddyurappa told reporters here. “You know very well, we’re number one in 177 Assembly constituencies in the 25 Lok Sabha seats we won,” he said, hinting that an election now would favour the BJP.

Yeddyurappa seeking fresh polls comes in the wake of the Congress-JD(S) coalition trying to tie the loose ends so as to pre-empt any move of the BJP to poach legislators.

The coalition partners are making all-out efforts to pacify the disgruntled legislators and even planning to accommodate some of them in the Cabinet.

The BJP leader’s statement has surprised many in the saffron party as he was not in favour of dissolution of Assembly till recently. He was actually eager to topple the coalition government by poaching disgruntled MLAs and instal his own government. For, the 76-year old Yeddyurappa fears that he may lose the opportunity to emerge as the chief ministerial candidate even if the party wins the mid-term polls, the party sources pointed out.

The sources said the party has bright chances of victory if the mid-term elections are held to the Assembly. The credit for it will entirely go to the Modi wave and not Yeddyurappa. In such an event, the central leadership and Sangh Parivar would like to instal a second-rung leader as the chief minister. If that to happen, Yeddyurappa will have to contend with being Margdarshak Mandal member.

Many of party MLAs with Sangh background are said to be mounting pressure on facing mid-term polls than forming a new government by poaching rival party MLAs.

However, sources in the Yeddyurappa camp said, he had not abandoned the effort to poach the rival party MLAs. “Toppling the government by poaching dissident MLAs will be the first option. We have already done the spade work in this regard. We are only awaiting the green signal from the central leaders to go ahead with it,” the sources added.

Asked about the BJP’s attempts to form government, Yeddyurappa said the party would “wait and see the atmosphere and take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time.”