Dissidents insist on Yeddyurappa's removal

Bangalore/New Delhi, Nov 7 : Karnataka Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy, who leads the campaign for the removal of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Saturday said there was no change in his stand and rubbished reports of a compromise between the warring groups.

"The party leaders have not given us any such thing. I am confident they will take the right decision in the next two days," Janardhana Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad after overnight discussions with ministers and legislators supporting him.

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.

Reddy later flew to Bangalore to meet his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy. The third Reddy sibling G. Somashekara is a legislator.

Janardhana Reddy's reiteration of the dissidents' stand came as Yeddyurappa claimed in New Delhi that "everything has been resolved".

Yeddyurappa told reporters before leaving to pray at Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir that he was "thankful to the party leadership for reposing faith in me. I will take everyone into confidence", he added.

According to reports, the compromise formula includes dropping some ministers close to Yeddyurappa, making assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar a minister, setting up a coordination committee to oversee functioning of the government, final say for the Reddy brothers in posting officials in their home district Bellary, about 400 km from Bangalore, and transfer of chief minister's principal secretary V.P. Baligar.

Yeddyurappa Friday shunted out Baligar as principal secretary of the industries and commerce department. He has also agreed to drop the lone woman minister Shobha Karandlaje, who holds the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj portfolio.

--IANS