Former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa made a quiet visit to the national capital on Tuesday and returned to Bangalore on Wednesday without having the planned meeting with some BJP leaders.
Karnataka Janata Paksha chief BSY is eyeing a return to the BJP and his loyalists have opened channels of communication with Narendra Modi and a section of party leaders in Delhi.
Sources close to BSY told The Pioneer that he was supposed to meet a section of BJP leaders to explore the possibilities of his return but dropped his plan for the meet at the last moment.
“He felt the process should begin only after there is clarity on leadership issue in the BJP,” they claimed. BSY, his aide said, was in town to press for his case with BJP leaders ahead of the crucial RSS-BJP meet on September 8 and 9. Modi is expected to attend this meet. Sources claimed BSY interacted with some “non-BJP leaders” before taking an evening flight to Bangalore.
BSY loyalists are also understood to have approached his bete noire and BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar, who also hails from Karnataka. Kumar is believed to have told that he was not averse to BSY’s return provided the initiative was taken by the former CM himself.
On Monday, former CM DV Sadananda Gowda, ex-Minister Basavaraja Bommai and Arvind limbavalli left for Gujarat to meet Modi, aiming to impress upon him the need for a quick decision in the matter.
In the May Assembly elections, the KJP won a mere six seats in the 224-member House but, more importantly, secured nearly 10 per cent of the vote share, denting BJP’s electoral prospects and indirectly helping the Congress to come to power after multi-cornered contests.