Karnataka's dissident leaders refuse to meet Yeddyurappa

New Delhi, Nov 5: The political turmoil within the ruling BJP in Karnataka seems far from ending as the state's dissident leader turned down Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's offer to hold talks to resolve the crisis on Thursday.

The crisis in the state has precipitated, as a section of the cabinet led by State Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and State Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy questioned the leadership of Yeddyurappa.

In the past week, BJP's top leadership efforts to diffuse the crisis have proved futile as the dissidents insist on a change in State leadership.

Yeddyurappa, who arrived in the national capital on Wednesday to hold talks with BJP leaders, had expressed inclination to meet the Reddy brothers in order to resolve the crisis, but Janardhan Reddy has vehemently turned down the offer.

"I'm not going to meet chief minister at all. I'm not going to meet him because we came here only to say whatever our feelings and whatever the feelings of the majority of the MLAs. That has been told to Venkaiah Naidu also because I have been only with Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and all, now Venkaiah Naidu also has given me the time and I have explained to him in detail," Janardhan Reddy said.

"So, I hope in the interest of the party and in the interest of Karnataka, they will take a very good decision within two or three days," he added.

Meanwhile, hectic meetings continued in the BJP to find a solution to the problem, and party President Rajnath Singh expressed hope of the crisis coming to an end soon.

"As you all know, all the leaders, including Karnataka Chief Minister, were here at my residence. We discussed a lot of issues and some issues are left, and once we discuss them, I'm sure that Karnataka crisis will be fully resolved," Singh said.

Dissidents led by Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy have rejected the plea of senior party leaders to allow Yeddyurappa to continue as Chief Minister in return for conceding to their other demands.

--ANI