Yeddyurappa extends Delhi stay, Reddy flies to Hyderabad

New Delhi/Bangalore, Nov 6 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leadership Friday directed Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to stay back in Delhi as they searched for a formula to win over dissidents who are insisting on his removal.

Dissident leader and Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy, however, gave no indication of softening his stand, after four days of talks with central leaders in New Delhi. "I am confident they will take the right decision in two, three days," Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad late Friday.

The dissident leader flew in to Hyderabad to meet ministers and legislators backing him in the campaign to replace Yeddyurappa with "better leadership".

Around 40 legislators, including some ministers, supporting the demand for Yeddyurappa's ouster have been staying in a star hotel in Hyderabad for a week now.

"I have been asked to stay in Delhi for one more day by my central leaders and I am staying back," Yeddyurappa told reporters in New Delhi late Friday at the end of a meeting at senior BJP leader L.K Advani's residence.

The meeting was attended by party president Rajnath Singh and senior leaders Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj.

Janardhana Reddy went to Hyderabad without meeting Yeddyurappa though both of them were in New Delhi. He twice rebuffed attempts by central leaders to arrange a meeting between the two.

He continued his tirade against Yeddyurappa, terming some of his actions as "mean" and that "evil forces" were damaging the BJP in Karnataka.

"I have explained to Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley the need for a better leadership in Karnataka to ensure that BJP rules the state not just for five years but 50 years. They have conveyed this to Rajnath Singh and Advani," Janardhana Reddy said.

Yielding to one of the demands of the dissidents, Yeddyurappa Friday shunted out his principal secretary V.P. Baligar.

Yeddyurappa told reporters in New Delhi that he has agreed to the dissidents' demand to transfer Baligar. "I have told our leaders that I am ready to accept other things also," he said, referring to the demand for dropping a few ministers considered close to him.

But the dissidents said Baligar's transfer had come too late.

M.P. Renukacharya, a dissident legislator staying in Hyderabad, told reporters this action should have been taken long back.

Yeddyurappa also agreed to drop the lone woman minister Shobha Karandlaje, who holds the rural development and panchayat raj portfolio.

Dissidents have been charging the 44-year-old Shobha with behaving like a second chief minister and interfering in the functioning of other ministries, which she has vehemently denied.

Janardhana Reddy is expected to announce his faction's next step after talks with the supporting legislators in Hyderabad.

--IANS