Yeddyurappa ready for Round 2;invites BJP MLAs for breakfast

Bangalore, Mar 28: Renewed political activity is expected in the ruling BJP in Karnataka, with former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa inviting party legislators for a breakfast meeting on Mar 30 when the assembly budget session ends.

Yeddyurappa who shifted legislators to a resort on Mar 18 in a show of strength to mount pressure on the high command to reinstate him as Chief Minister, has been maintaining a low profile for the last few days. The dissident activity that rocked the ruling party early this month came to a halt after intervention by BJP President Nitin Gadkari, who asked the Yeddyurappa faction and also those supporting Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda to concentrate on the on-going budget session.

According to Yeddyurappa's loyalists, no political significance can be attached to the breakfast meeting in the light of the high command issuing gag orders on both factions. The Yeddyurappa camp hopes that the BJP central leadership would decide on their leader's demand for reinstatement by the first week of Apr.

Gowda's followers are confident that the party would continue to back him, at a time when he is trying to refurbish the party's image which has taken a severe beating due to corruption charges and internal squabbles.

PTI