Next round of Karnataka BJP fight in Delhi

DEEP IN MINEFIELD: Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa faces challenge from mining lobby.

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New Delhi/Bangalore: The two factions in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) will take their fight to New Delhi where they will urge senior leaders to give them a hearing.

The campaign to remove Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, BJP's first chief minister in Karnataka and south India, is led by Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy, his elder brother and Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy and their loyalist, Health Minister B Sriramulu.

The Reddy brothers are rich iron ore miners from Bellary district, about 400 km from Bangalore. Their mines are mainly in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, bordering Bellary district.

The Reddy brothers want Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar to replace Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister and claim the support of 60 MLAs out of the BJP’s 117 MLAs in the Assembly.

Yeddyurappa on Saturday refused to comment on the dissidents. "The party high command has asked me to keep mum," he said.

"There is no dissidence in BJP. The only demand is that Assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar should be given some suitable position. He would be made a minister," he said.

Yeddyurappa has reportedly offered the Deputy Chief Minister’s post to Shettar but the dissidents have rejected a compromise.

Shettar has said he would not join the Yeddyurappa ministry as part of a compromise formula mooted by the party to restore peace in the state unit.

"Right now I do not contemplate resigning as it would create more confusion. I will await the outcome of my talks with party high Command," said Shettar, who met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders in Bangalore on Saturday.

"My stand has been known already and debated publicly. There will be no change in it," Shettar said.

Karnataka BJP dissidents, during their trip to Delhi, are likely to meet senior party leader L K Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who is considered to close to the Reddy brothers and once contested a Lok Sabha by-election election from Bellary, denied she had been asked to speak to the dissidents.

"I have not been deputed to talk to them. M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley have been given this responsibility and they are in touch with the group," she said.

Senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar on Saturday accused Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) of fomenting rebellion in the BJP leadership in Karnataka.

Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy, brother of Janardhana Reddy, denied reports that he was engaged in conciliatory talks with an emissary of Yeddyurappa.

"When the senior leader Arun Jaitley has already summoned all leaders for further parleys over the crisis to Delhi where is the question of holding conciliatory talks with anyone here," Karunakara Reddy told PTI in Bangalore.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS.)