The BJP core committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the Karnataka crisis. It may consider the dissolution of the state Assembly as an option as the state goes to polls in the next six months.
On his recent trip to Delhi, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar had claimed that he would complete his term. With the Shettar government tottering after the exit of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and his supporter MLAs and ministers, the party high command has dispatched general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Dharmendra Pradhan, to study the ground realities. He is expected to return in a couple of days to brief the party brass about the crisis-ridden state unit.
“We are watching the situation carefully in Karnataka,” said BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday.
“In the next election, the entire game plan of Yeddyurappa would be to garner the minimum required number of seats that would help him play the kingmaker in a divided House,” said a top BJP leader on conditions of anonymity.
However, they think that Yeddyurappa’s adventure of going solo won’t last for long due to absence of support from a structured party. “Many caste leaders who thought they had grown bigger than the party tried to carve a niche outside the party but ultimately failed. Leaders like Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh fall in this category. While Uma is already back in the party, Kalyan is on his way back into the party fold,” said the BJP leader.
According to him, Yeddyurappa would exhaust all his options in the next state elections when he fights as a regional player. “After that, we hope that he will be forced to retrace his steps. Before the next Parliamentary elections he should be back in the party fold,” added the leader.
Sources said that the BJP is also seeking legal opinion on whether the 15 MLAs who attended the KJP rally in Haveri on Sunday can be disqualified under the Anti-defection Act.