Even after a consensus, former Chief Minister and KJP supremo BS Yeddyurappa’s re-entry into BJP has been further delayed. Even though there is no Opposition in State BJP, including a faction led by senior BJP leader HN Ananthakumar for his homecoming, the Mumbai meeting of the seniors could not finalise his entry.
lingayat strongman who is now harping on Modi mood is looking desperate to come back to his own party. A senior leader in BJP told The Pioneer that there was a discussion on the re-entry of Yeddyurappa and his followers back to the party fold in view of the ensuing elections to the lok Sabha. But according to him, BSY had posed some conditions to his coming which had delayed his return. He said, “There was a discussion on this issue. The party seniors are aware of the consequences and want him to back in the party. Even Modi is inclined to his admission to the party. But some of his conditions have
put a spoke in the wheel and we have to wait for some
more time.”
According to BJP sources, Yeddyurappa had laid down several pre-conditions for his return, from granting him the leader of Opposition position in the legislature to giving party ticket to his son BY Raghavendra to contest from Shimoga lok Sabha constituency in 2014 general elections, making former Minister Shobha Karandlaje an MlC, appointing former Union Minister Dhananjay Kumar and lehar Singh officebearers in BJP. “The leadership has agreed to consider two of his conditions, making him leader of the Opposition and giving his son a seat from Shimoga. But they did not agree to the other conditions. let us wait for a decision now.”
A close aide of former Chief Minister told The Pioneer that they were hoping to re-join the party at the mega rally on November 16 in the presence of Narendra Modi, who is addressing a massive rally in Bangalore. But with BJP high command undecided about accepting his conditions, they have ruled out the possibility of Yeddyurappa joining BJP in the presence of Modi.
Meanwhile, a KJP leader confirmed that due to poor health of senior RSS functionary, MC Jayadev, negotiations over KJP’s merger with BJP have been delayed. The source also confirmed Yeddyurappa wanted negotiations over merger to happen in the presence of Jayadev, who has advocated for the merger of the KJP with BJP ahead of 2014 general elections.
The BJP president Rajnath Singh has authorised senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley to finalise the modalities for the merger. Arun Jaitley is away on an overseas trip and is expected to back in the last week of October. It is expected that after his return to India, he might address all the issues and might work out a formula for Yeddyurappa’s return to BJP.