NEW DELHI: BJP's troubles in Karnataka are clearly growing by the day. The party's core group is scheduled to meet here on Wednesday to review the Karnataka crisis that has further deepened after former CM and Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurrappa held a show of strength rally on Sunday to announce the launch of his breakaway outfit, the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), in Belgaum.
The BJP top brass is likely to discuss the fate of the members of its state unit, who had openly displayed their allegiance to Yeddyurrappa on Sunday. However, the party in-charge for Karnataka Dharmendra Pradhan, who was scheduled to reach Bangalore to attend a state-level meeting on Wednesday, called off his visit on Tuesday night.
The central leadership — already weakened with BJP chief Nitin Gadkari himself under fire from within the party — is in a fix over the action to be taken against the rebels since any expulsion of the MLAs will reduce the Jagadish Shettar government to a minority.
Sunday's breakfast meeting at Yeddyurrappa's house was attended by 23 sitting MLAs, 10 MLCs, four MPs and eight ministers from the Shettar government. Yeddyurrappa had asked his loyalists not to attend the KJP's launch rally on Sunday evening, but 14 BJP MLAs and one minister (Sunil Volapure) shared the stage with the Lingayat leader in Belgaum. Gadkari is learnt to be of the view that CM Shettar should dissolve the assembly and opt for snap polls, which are slated to be in mid-2013. However, since governor H S Bhardwaj is to decide the assembly's fate, the saffron party is uncertain whether the latter will accept the government's recommendation.
If the governor asks the Shettar government to prove its majority and the CM fails to do so, Central rule could be imposed in the state, much to the discomfort for the BJP, which is keen to continue for some more months to shore up its winning prospect.
There is a distinct possibility that the ministers, including the eight who attended the KJP chief's breakfast meeting, could be dropped from the cabinet. Show cause notices could also be sent to some of the BJP rebels. But even the rebels are surprised that only the Tumkur MP, G S Basuraj, was served a show cause notice from the party so far, while others like excise minister Renukacharya, who has openly criticized the party leadership, or Yeddyurrappa's son, BJP MP B Y Raghavendra, who organized the successful Belgaum rally for KJP, were not served any notices so far. Volapure quit his ministerial post voluntarily, but the BJP leadership had to go into a huddle till 2am to drop another minister B J Puttuswamy from the cabinet.
Yeddyurrappa too is waiting for the BJP to take action against the rebels as he does not want to be seen as the hand that toppled the state government, especially when it is led by a fellow Lingayat, Shettar.
BJP may dissolve Karnataka assembly to counter Yeddyurrappa
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BJP may dissolve Karnataka assembly to counter Yeddyurrappa
