BJP wants Yeddyurappa to seek his return to party

Bangalore : The BJP Saturday said if its former Karnataka leader B. S. Yeddyurappa seeks to return to the party, his case will be considered.

“We have no idea whether he is inclined (to return) or not. Central leaders will discuss only after he gives his feedback,” Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary and in-charge of party in Karnataka Thawarchand Gehlot told reporters here.

Since Yeddyurappa left the party, “he has to get in touch with us,” Gehlot said after meeting state party leaders where the issue of taking back the former leader was discussed.

“Some want him back. Some don’t. So once Yeddyurappa gets in touch, we’ll discuss all this and take everyone’s inputs,” he said.

The final decision on the issue would be that of BJP president Rajnath Singh, Gehlot said.

A section in Karnataka BJP has stepped up campaign to bring back Yeddyurappa, who quit BJP in November last year to head Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

This section, comprising mainly Yeddyurappa’s loyalists, believe without him the BJP will suffer badly in the Lok Sabha elections, like it did in the May 5 assembly poll.

The loyalists include former BJP ministers Umesh Katti, Basavaraj Bommai, and Aravind Limbavali.

However Yeddyurappa’s return is opposed by state BJP president Pralhad Joshi, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, general secretary and Bangalore South MP H.N. Ananth Kumar and former deputy chief ministers R. Ashoka and K.S. Eshwarappa.

The BJP not only lost power but suffered massive defeat in the assembly poll winning just 40 seats in the 225-member assembly. It had won 110 seats in 2008 and Yeddyurappa was largely credited for that impressive show.

Yeddyurappa, who quit the chief minister’s post in July 2011 over mining bribery charges, has been saying he is not interested in returning to BJP though several state leaders have been urging him to come back.

He has also been saying at the same time that his KJP was not strong enough to face the Lok Sabha election on its own and will have to have tie up or seat adjustment with other parties.

“We will decide on the tie-up and other issues at appropriate time,” he told reporters here Friday.