NEW DELHI: Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa arrived here late on Wednesday, amid speculation that he may be reinstated as the Chief Minister.
Yeddyurappa is scheduled to meet BJP president Nitin Gadkari, party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh during his visit.
Asked on Wednesday if he was being reinstated as the Chief Minister, Yeddyurappa refused to give a direct answer, saying that the “party high command alone could take a call on this, and that the party decision would be acceptable to him”.
The seeming mellowing down of Yeddyurappa comes after days of muscle flexing, where he marshaled his loyal MLAs — numbering around 70 — to a resort, to send across a strong message to the top brass.
Gadkari had last week asked him to be “patient even as the matter was being re-considered”.
On Wednesday, sources close to Gadkari admitted that it was “only a matter of time before Yeddyurappa was brought back as chief minister of the state”.
Sources said some factors seemed to have worked in Yeddyurappa’s favour. One, the High Court last week dismissed charges against him by the state Lokayukta report on illegal mining. So, “there are no serious charges pending against him,” BJP sources said.
Two, the Lingayat strongman continues to have a sizable following among the MLAs and MPs from the state. While he commands the support of around 70 MLAs, about 12 MPs had petitioned the party brass to reinstate him as CM.