Defiant till the end, CM bows out

BANGALORE: After taking a defiant stand against his party, which had asked him to resign following his indictment by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa finally relented late on Thursday night and said he would resign on July 31. After keeping everyone guessing throughout Thursday, Yeddyurappa, in a press note issued in Bangalore late Thursday night, said he did not want to go against the wishes of the party, which he had served for 40 years and would obey its orders.This was completely at odds with his stand earlier in the day, when he sought two days’ time to decide, claiming innocence and majority support of party MLAs and ministers. The party high command and the state leadership, however, would have none of it and had given him time till Friday morning to fall in line.“The party has convened a meeting of all its MLAs on Friday to elect Yeddyurappa’s successor,” a BJP source said. The CM had also convened a meeting at 8 am on Friday and had asked all MLAs and ministers to attend it without fail. According to sources, Yeddyurappa’s show of defiance was to buy time to pressure the high command to accept his conditions — that of choosing his nominee for the CM’s post and the party’s support to fight charges against him.Yeddyurappa is said to have proposed Udupi-Chikmagalur MP D V Sadanand Gowda as his replacement.Meanwhile, the race for the CM’s post has begun and names of Sadananda Gowda, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Jagadish Shettar, state BJP president K S Eshwarappa and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sureshkumar are doing the rounds.Earlier in the day, Yeddyurappa, who was in Delhi on Wednesday, rushed back to Bangalore after being asked to step down. On his arrival, the CM said he had called a Cabinet meeting in the afternoon.Sensing that the CM might take an adverse decision, the BJP parliamentary board held an emergency meeting and passed a unanimous decision asking him to step down and warned its ministers and MLAs against attending the CM’s meeting.Dharmendra Pradhan, in charge of party affairs, is in Bangalore zeroing on a successor for Yeddyurappa.