NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to Delhi. However, Yeddyurappa remained adamant and refused to leave Bangalore.
Yeddyurappa loyalists said the BJP top brass hold the meeting in Bangalore.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Law Minister has also said that Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda will present the budget in the Karnataka Assembly on Wednesday. The BJP said Yeddyurappa has agreed on Gowda presenting the budget in the state Assembly.
The 48-hour deadline set by Yeddyurappa to be reinstated as Karnataka Chief Minister ends on Tuesday. The BJP will have to give its answer on whether they will reinstate him or continue with DV Sadananda Gowda.
Yeddyurappa, who doesn't see eye to eye with Gowda, has threatened to break away and form his own party. Yeddyurappa claims to have the support of a majority of 120 MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly.
Over the weekend, Yeddyurappa had whisked away almost 40 MLAs to a resort, as a means of stepping up pressure on the BJP top brass.
The BJP top brass on the other hand said they were making efforts to resolve the crisis. BJP President Nitin Gadkari said a decision on Yeddyurappa will be taken soon.
Yeddyurappa has been contending that the BJP central leadership should fulfill its promise to reinstate him as the Chief Minister as it had assured him the chair once the High Court quashes an FIR filed against him in an illegal mining case.
On March 8, the High Court cleared him in the case.
The BJP central leadership had forced Yeddyurappa to quit in July 2011 after he
was indicted by the Lokyukta report on illegal mining that had caused a political storm in the state.
After meeting his loyalists on Sunday, Yeddyurappa ferried them to a private resort, where they are likely to stay for two days and await the BJP central leadership's response to his demand, sources close to him said.
This is the third deadline given by Yeddyurappa to the BJP central leadership to reinstate him as Chief Minister.
Earlier he had set January 14 and February 27 as deadlines, which the BJP ignored.