New party on December 10, says Yeddyurappa

Mangalore Today News / NDTV

Bangalore, Oct 23: Disgruntled BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has said that he will announce the name of his new party on December 10.

"I have taken decision to form a new party. On December 10, I will form it. We will form a new regional party and I appeal the people of Karnataka to support it," Mr Yeddyurappa said today.

 

Mr Yeddyurappa also made it clear that he is no longer with the BJP.


Mr Yeddyurappa had said erlier this month that he would bid goodbye to BJP in December and cautioned "if my followers who are in the ministry are troubled, then this government will not survive".

Mr Yeddyurappa has been sulking for many months now for what he calls a "betrayal" by the top leadership of his party after he was forced to step down as Chief Minister on corruption charges last year.

He had sent out a signal last month when he stayed away from the party’s national executive meeting. His excuse - he had enrolled for a three-day Art of Living course. At the meeting in Surajkund near Delhi, senior party leader LK Advani made a strong statement against corruption which included a not so veiled attack on Mr Yeddyurappa.

Though Mr Yeddyurappa has promised that he will not topple the BJP government led by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, he has amply proved that he remains very influential among the BJP rank and file and has the potential to split the party and walk out with a majority of the party’s MLAs. His party has refused to give in to his core demands that he be reinstated as CM, but it has repeatedly bowed to pressure on who should occupy that seat.

In July 2011, Mr Yeddyurappa was forced by the BJP to quit as chief minister of Karnataka after he was indicted in a report on illegal mining in the state. His pink slip came with the right to select his successor. He picked Sadananda Gowda, a non-controversial partyman. Mr Gowda’s good humour was tested severely by Mr Yeddyurappa, who decided in July this year that he would prefer to pick another candidate for the chief minister’s office. His party capitulated and Jagadish Shettar, who belongs to the same Lingayat community as Mr Yeddyurappa, was made CM.

In Mr Shettar’s appointment and that of his senior ministers, the BJP has made complicated calculations to get its caste mix right and not alienate other powerful communities like Mr Gowda’s a few months before Assembly elections due in early 2013. Its best efforts, however, are likely to come undone with a Yeddyurappa walkout. Mr Yeddyurappa is credited with single-handedly fetching the BJP its first southern state in the 2008 elections.