Bangalore: Yeddyurappa Loyalists Boycott Budget Session
Bangalore, Mar 20 (Agencies): A majority of Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators supporting former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa boycotted the assembly session that began here Tuesday.
The boycott was led by Yeddyurappa who is demanding that he be made chief minister again as the high court March 7 quashed the mining bribery case filed against him on the basis of last July's Lokayukta report.
File photo of Team BSY at resort
Yeddyurappa, claiming the support of 70 of the party's 120 members in the 225-member assembly, has set a Tuesday evening deadline for the party's central leaders to remove his successor D.V. Sadananda Gowda from the post.
Gowda is to present the budget Wednesday.
The assembly was adjourned for the day after condoling the death of senior state BJP leader and higher education minister V.S. Acharya. Acharya, 71, died Feb 17 following a heart attack.
Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters at a resort on Bangalore's outskirts that only a few ministers and legislators supporting Yeddyurappa would attend the 10-day budget session.
The party Central leadership had promised to depute an emissary after the current budget session to resolve the crisis. The assurance has paved way for the Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda to present his maiden budget tomorrow without any hindrance.
"The central leadership will be sending its emissary to Bangalore to resolve the leadership issue and Gowda will present the budget as scheduled tomorrow," Basavaraj Bommai told reporters.
Bommai said the group has demanded that the party convene a legislature party meeting to decide the leadership issue.
The central leadership, especially BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley, has been in constant touch with B S Yeddyurappa and had detailed talks with him over the issue, Bommai said. "Whatever the central leadership arrives at a decision we will abide by it," Bommai said.
He urged State BJP President K S Eshwarappa to withdraw suspension orders issued to B J Puttaswamy who filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha polls as rebel candidate.
He said since BJP had numbers in the legislature house, they fielded Puttaswamy as the third candidate. "We don't think he is a rebel candidate," he said.
Meanwhile, Gowda said he has been authorised by the party to present the budget tomorrow.
Talking to reporters, he exuded optimism that the crisis would soon be resolved.
Former minister Aravind Limbavally, one of the MLAs, who had proposed the nomination of Puttaswamy for the Rajya Sabha polls has declared that he has withdrawn his signature.He said he did not wish to be identified with any group.
Yeddyurappa and his supporters have been camping at the resort since Sunday night as part of the pressure tactics to achieve his demand.
Sources in the Yeddyurappa camp said the former chief minister has placed several conditions to attend the session. They include announcement of the date for meeting of the party's legislature wing to elect a new leader and Gowda's resignation a day prior to the meeting.
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