Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa Sunday denied meeting BJP leader Arun Jaitley and remained firm on launching his own party even as the BJP seemed reluctant to let go of him.
Yeddyurappa had announced he would quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and launch his own outfit, Karnataka Janata Party, 9 Dec. He told reporters here that he ‘respects’ Jaitley but ‘the question of meeting him or going back on the decision to launch a new party does not arise’. This is the second time in over a month that Yeddyurappa avoided meeting Jaitley.
Yeddyurappa asserted that there was ‘no change in the plan to launch a new party 9 Dec, irrespective of whether anyone (a reference to ministers and BJP legislators supporting him) will be with me or not on that day’.
Though almost half of ministers in Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar’s 34-member cabinet are Yeddyurappa loyalists, it is not clear how many would follow him to the new party.
As a show of strength, Yeddyurappa had hosted a lunch here 6 Nov, which was attended by about 40 of the BJP’s 119 assembly members, including 10 ministers and several BJP Lok Sabha and state legislative council members.
‘I am out of the BJP 99%. There is no going back,’ said the former CM, who is upset over what he claims as ‘betrayal’ by Gadkari in not making him the state BJP chief ‘as promised’ within 24 hours of his resigning as CM.
Yeddyurappa had announced he would quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and launch his own outfit, Karnataka Janata Party, 9 Dec. He told reporters here that he ‘respects’ Jaitley but ‘the question of meeting him or going back on the decision to launch a new party does not arise’. This is the second time in over a month that Yeddyurappa avoided meeting Jaitley.
Yeddyurappa asserted that there was ‘no change in the plan to launch a new party 9 Dec, irrespective of whether anyone (a reference to ministers and BJP legislators supporting him) will be with me or not on that day’.
Though almost half of ministers in Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar’s 34-member cabinet are Yeddyurappa loyalists, it is not clear how many would follow him to the new party.
As a show of strength, Yeddyurappa had hosted a lunch here 6 Nov, which was attended by about 40 of the BJP’s 119 assembly members, including 10 ministers and several BJP Lok Sabha and state legislative council members.
‘I am out of the BJP 99%. There is no going back,’ said the former CM, who is upset over what he claims as ‘betrayal’ by Gadkari in not making him the state BJP chief ‘as promised’ within 24 hours of his resigning as CM.