Assuring Yeddyurappa that it will act soon on his demand for reinstatement, party tries to persuade the former CM to allow Sadananda Gowda to present the budget
Assuring Yeddyurappa that it will act soon on his demand for reinstatement, party tries to persuade the former CM to allow Sadananda Gowda to present the budget
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"We will take an appropriate decision soon. However we will not take any decision under pressure," said BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, as Yeddyurappa and his supporters insisted in Bangalore that Gowda must go immediately.
As part of keeping up the pressure on party national leaders, Yeddyurappa made his political secretary BJ Puttaswamy file nomination papers for the March 30 Rajya Sabha poll from Karnataka, though the party has officially chosen two candidates.
With 120 members in the 225-member assembly, the BJP can easily get two of its candidates elected as each needs 45 votes to win. The party's official candidates, former state unit president Basavaraj Patil Sedam and party's central election cell convenor R Ramakrishna filed their papers in Bangaloreu00a0 yesterday. Yeddyurappa is claiming the support of 70 of the 120 members who include nearly half of the 23 ministers in the Gowda cabinet.
The former chief minister and his supporters are staying in a resort on Bangalore outskirts since Sunday night and may decide only on Tuesday morning whether to attend the assembly or not. Gadkari, who is believed to be inclined to accept Yeddyurappa's demand for re-instatement, told him to have patience. "He should be patient and cooperate as the party will decide on his demand soon," the BJP chief said.
Apart from Gadkari, another senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley also indicated that a decision that satisfies Yeddyurappa is likely soon. Jaitley said that the Karnataka high court had quashed the mining bribery case against Yeddyurappa. Gowda, who took over on August 4 and is preparing to present his first budget, was confident that he will present the budgetu00a0 on Wednesday. He played down several ministers going along with Yedyurappa for a stay in the resort. "How can I restrict anybody from going anywhere?" he said.
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