BJP resolves Karnataka muddle, Sushma to play key role

New Delhi/Bangalore, Nov 8 : The Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday ended the two-week-old crisis in its first government in Karnataka by assigning a key role in the state affairs to senior party leader Sushma Swaraj in return for dissidents dropping their demand for removal of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

"From now onward Sushma Swaraj will play a lead role in solving any dispute in the government," a legislator close to dissident leader and Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy told IANS on phone from Hyderabad where dozens of rebel legislators have been staying for nearly ten days now.

Asked whether another senior leader Arun Jaitley has been divested of Karnataka charge, the legislator, requesting he be not named, said: "He too will be there but Sushmaji would play the lead role."

Janardhana Reddy gave full credit to Sushma Swaraj for ending the impasse that has paralysed the 18-month old Yeddyurappa ministry for the past two weeks.

She is expected to be formally named soon as head of the coordination panel that will include representatives of the two factions to ensure that Yeddyurappa does not take any decisions without the consent of Janardhana Reddy and his brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy.

Soon after Sushma Swaraj announced in New Delhi that "Karnataka issue has been resolved peacefully," Janardhana Reddy said: "We have agreed to the advice of our 'thayi' (mother) Sushma Swaraj."

"We cannot go against the word our 'thayi'," Janardhana Reddy said, though he thanked other senior BJP leaders also for their effort to resolve the dispute.

Yeddyurappa said, "There are no issues now. We will work together."

He also said "It was not a question of victory or defeat", when asked who had bent to end the crisis.

Yeddyurappa has agreed to several demands of the Reddys.

He has already shunted out his Principal Secretary V.P. Baligar and agreed to drop from the cabinet his close associate and the lone woman minister Shobha Karandlaje, who holds rural development and panchayat raj portfolio.

Yeddyurappa has also agreed to make assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar, whom the dissidents were projecting as alternative leader, a cabinet minister.

There was speculation that the Reddy brothers have demanded sacking of at least six other ministers to accommodate their supporters and secure plum portfolios like home, forests, mines and environment.

After the announcement, Sushma Swaraj, Yeddyurappa and Janardhana Reddy went to senior party leader L.K. Advani's house to greet him on his birthday.

Yeddyurappa and Janardhana Reddy fed a piece of cake to each other in a show of camaraderie.

Reddy loyalist and Health Minister B. Sriramulu, party general secretary and Bangalore South Lok Sabha member H.N. Ananth Kumar were present.

The Yeddyurappa ministry was paralysed for the past two weeks with Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy launching a campaign for his removal.

After Arun Jaitley's three-day effort in Bangalore in last week of October failed to resolve the dispute, Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers were called to New Delhi for talks with central leaders.

Yeddyurappa was in Delhi since Wednesday while Janardhana Reddy stayed there from Tuesday to Friday and returned late Saturday after talks with ministers and legislators supporting him and his brother's campaign to oust Yeddyurappa.

These legislators and ministers were lodged in a luxury hotel in Hyderabad for nearly 10 days to prevent Yeddyurappa camp from weaning them away.

The Reddys are rich iron ore mine owners and hence the reported keenness for forests, mines and environment portfolios.

Yeddyurappa, however, has maintained he would not drop any minister other than Shobha Karandlaje.

In the May 2008 polls, the BJP won 110 of the 224 elected seats in the 225-member assembly. It formed the government with the help of six Independents, five of whom have been rewarded with ministerial posts. The Reddys are believed to have won over the Independents using their financial clout.

Later, the Reddys also lured more than half a dozen Congress and Janata Dal-Secular legislators to the BJP, giving the party its majority in the assembly and reducing the government's dependence on the Independents.