Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Venkaiah Naidu ruled out the possibilities of inviting former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to the party fold following the severe setback to the BJP in the Assembly elections.
“There is no such proposal to persuade him to return to the party fold,” said Naidu at Bangalore Press Club on Sunday.
On the decision to ask Yeddyurappa to step down following the Lokayukta report indicting him in the illegal mining scam, he said it was in line with the party’s stand against corruption. “The party had accepted the verdict given by the people of the state. Internal bickering and groupism caused the defeat. We have taken it in our stride and shall correct ourselves,” he added.
He said that the party’s Central parliamentary board, which met at New Delhi on Saturday, had sought a report from the BJP state unit on its poor performance. “The BJP has launched a campaign against the UPA government at the Centre demanding early elections to the Lok Sabha. We will also launch a countrywide Jail Bharo from May 27 to June 3,” he said.
Denying that the NDA alliance is on the rocks, he said it is the UPA partners who are deserting it. “The Samajwadi Party which is supporting the UPA government at the Centre from outside may pull the plug any time and must be waiting for an auspicious time to do so,” he said.
When asked if there were any chances that Yeddyurappa would return to the BJP like former chief ministers Kalyan Singh, Madan Lal Khurana and Uma Bharti had done in the past, state BJP president Prahlad Joshi said if there is any such plan, the party’s Central leadership would deal with it. Joshi admitted that Yeddyurappa’s KJP and B Sriramulu’s BSR Congress had chipped away BJP’s votes in no small measure.
“The trifurcation of traditional BJP votes has caused us major damage. The party had to face anti-incumbency because of one person who eventually left,” Joshi added.
