Bangalore: The formal homecoming will take a few days yet, but for all intents and purposes, former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa ended six months in the political wilderness after he was welcomed back into the BJP, the mother party he led to victory in 2008, while orchestrating its decimation in the 2013 assembly polls.
“In three to four days, there will be a formal merger between the BJP and the Karnataka Janata Paksha," announced a beaming Yeddyurappa, flanked by bete noire turned supporter Ananth Kumar, and the top brass of the state BJP including state BJP president, Prahlad Joshi, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and former state chief K S Eshwarappa.
Yeddyurappa's first phone call after the two hour merger marathon was made to Gujarat chief minister and BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, followed by calls to senior leader Arun Jaitley and national party chief Rajnath Singh where he promised that the BJP's ticket haul in the 2014 parliamentary polls would be better than the 18 seats it currently holds.
Sources close to BSY reported that he promised Modi, "We will make you prime minister." The merger is likely before Makara Sankranti, January 14, when it will then become the principal opposition party in the legislative assembly.
BJP to get Oppn leader’s post?
Ending the six-month long suspense over the future of his party, Karnataka Janata Party(KJP) president B.S. Yeddyurappa announced on Thursday that he has decided to merge his outfit with the BJP after top BJP leaders met him and invited him to rejoin the party. Once the KJP merges with the BJP, the saffron party may get the status of principal opposition party in the legislative assembly.
Though both BJP and JD (S) won 40 seats each in the assembly polls, by virtue of the higher percentage of votes they garnered, JD (S) got the status of the main opposition party. Sources said the BJP and KJP presidents would soon intimate the Speaker about the merger and may stake claim to the opposition leader’s post.
KJP had garnered six seats and 10 per cent vote share in the May 8 Assembly polls, spoiling the prospects of the BJP, which saw the ouster from power of its first ever government in south India. The KJP failed to make a big impact as an independent force, raising questions over its political future.
Mr Yeddyurappa, after a two-hour long meeting with BJP state leaders, told media persons that he would merge his party with the BJP to help make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister. Emerging from the meeting, the former CM said, “As president of KJP, I announce that our party will merge with BJP. We will complete the merger formalities in three or four days. After that we will jointly tour the state and build the party.”
After the meeting with Mr Yeddyurappa, state BJP president, Prahlad Joshi said that with the Lingayat strongman back in the BJP, the party would be able to retain anti-Congress votes in the coming parliament elections and dream of winning more than 19 of the 28 parliament seats. “In the assembly elections, due to the division of the anti-Congress vote, both parties had suffered, we don't want to repeat it again," he said. Earlier Joshi said that there was consensus on the re-entry of Yeddyurappa adding that party national president, Rajnath Singh too had given his consent to the merger proposal.
Sources close to the former CM said that Yeddyurappa will merge his party with the BJP before Makara Sankranti (January 14).
To a question on the delay despite the unanimity on Yeddyurappa's induction, Mr Joshi said, “Our central unit was supposed to clear this. On Wednesday, they told us to meet and discuss his (Yeddyurappa's) re-entry into the party and merger of KJP and BJP. As soon as we got the clearance from the central unit, we made this move,” Joshi said.
Along with BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar, party state president Prahlad Joshi, former CM Jagadish Shettar and former deputy CM K.S. Eshwarappa held a lengthy meeting with Mr Yeddyurappa at a private hotel in the city. Another core committee member and former CM D.V. Sadananda Gowda was in Mangalore to attend a protest rally of arecanut growers and missed the meeting with Yeddyurappa.
