Thaindian News

Bangalore, March 18 (IANS) Nearly half of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators in Karnataka Friday stayed away from a meeting Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa called, indicating deepening fissures over his leadership.

Around 60 BJP lawmakers, of the 107 (including the speaker), did not attend the meeting held at Yeddyurappa’s residence here.

The chief minister convened the meeting two days after about 50 BJP legislators met without inviting him to discuss the impact on the party of his continuance in view of mounting corruption and nepotism charges against him.

Prominent among those who stayed away from Friday’s meeting were state party chief K.S. Eshwarappa and the Reddy brothers — two of whom are ministers as well as mining barons.

Yeddyurappa played down the absence of a large number of party legislators.

“I will have a talk with our state party chief and hold a meeting of all party legislators soon,” he told reporters.

Yeddyurappa said Friday’s meeting was held as many legislators wanted to meet him to review the stormy legislature session which ended Thursday amid the opposition demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into a private trust run by his family.

The chief minister said there was no dissidence in the party against his leadership.

He had Thursday termed as a ‘media creation’ the reports that Wednesday’s meeting of about 50 legislators was intended to mount pressure on the party central leaders to replace him.

Wednesday’s meeting was held at the party office in south Bangalore in the presence of Eshwarappa.

Eshwarappa and legislators and ministers who attended the Wednesday meeting have declined to speak to the media on the reasons for the sudden gathering keeping Yeddyurappa away.

Their meeting followed three days of deadlock in the assembly and the legislative council over the opposition demand for CBI probe into ‘Prerana Educational and Social Trust’ run by Yeddyurappa’s two sons.

One of Yeddiurappa’s sons, B.Y. Raghavendra, is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Karnataka.

The Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) claim that Yeddyurappa and his sons have made over Rs.27 crore in the last two years by trading favours for donations to the trust.

Yeddyurappa and Raghavendra have denied the charges.

Yeddyurappa said after meeting his supporters Friday that JD-S leaders, particularly its president H.D. Deve Gowda and his son and state unit chief H.D. Kumaraswamy, were “only interested in maligning” him because they cannot stomach the good work of his government.