Yeddyurappa sheds tears at fate, dissidents firm on his sack

Bangalore/New Delhi, Nov 7 : Left with little option but to bow to dissident's demands to save his chair, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Saturday shed tears publicly but the rebels stood firm on his removal.

In a rare spectacle in Indian politics, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) first chief minister in south India did not try to conceal his helplessness as he told a TV channel in New Delhi that under pressure from the dissidents, he had let down people who trusted him.

The trusted people include senior Indian Administrative Service officer V.P. Baligar, who was his principal secretary and whose removal the dissidents were demanding. Baligar has been shunted out as secretary in the to Industries and Commerce Department.

Yeddyurappa has also agreed to drop his confidante and lone woman minister in the cabinet, Shobha Karnadlaje who holds the rural development and panchayat raj portfolio.

Dissidents have been seeking her removal accusing her of interference in the functioning of other ministries and behaving like a second chief minister. She has consistently denied the charges.

"God will not forgive me for this," Yeddyurappa, who rose in the BJP ranks after joining it from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said.

While Karandlaje has said she is ready to quit if it saved the Yeddyurappa ministry, her supporters Saturday threatened suicide if she is dropped to please the dissidents.

They held a demonstration outside her Bangalore residence and shouted slogans against the dissidents.

Yeddyurappa apologised to the people of Karnataka for the crisis that has paralysed the government for the last 13 days, particularly when around a million flood-hit people in the northern parts of the state are struggling to get their lives back on track.

Yeddyurappa blamed the dissidents for diverting attention from flood rehabilitation work.

The dissidents, however, remained unfazed, despite four days of talks with central leaders and insisted there was no change in their demand for removing Yeddyurappa who assumed power May 30, 2008.

"From the beginning I am saying the BJP, its lakhs of workers and people of Karnataka want better leadership," Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy told reporters in Bangalore after his return from New Delhi.

"I stand by it," asserted Janardhana Reddy, who is leading the dissidents' campaign along with his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy.

The Reddys are mining magnates from iron-ore rich Bellary district, about 400 km from Bangalore.

Janardhana Reddy rubbished reports of a compromise formula worked out by the central leaders. "I am not aware of it," he insisted after briefing his elder brother on the outcome of his Delhi talks.

The dissidents' claim about not being aware of the compromise formula followed Yeddyurappa's statement in New Delhi earlier Saturday that the crisis had been resolved.

"I am thankful to the party national leadership for reposing faith in my leadership and resolving the present crisis. The government will complete its full term under my leadership in the state," Yeddyurappa said as he left to pray at Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir.

In related developments, the Reddy brothers and their loyalist and Health Minister B. Sriramulu Saturday met assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar, whom they are projecting as an alternative to Yeddyurappa.

"It is a courtesy call," Karunakara Reddy said, declining to give details of what transpired at the meeting.

Shettar was also in New Delhi for five days for talks with central leaders. Yeddyurappa has agreed to take him in the ministry, hoping to wean him away from the dissidents.

Shettar's involvement in the power struggle between Yeddyurappa and the dissidents has come in for sharp criticism from the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular.

"Let him resign as speaker and then involve himself in politics," senior JD-S leader M.C. Nanaiah said.

--IANS