Thaindian News

Bangalore, March 20 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda will present the state budget Wednesday as a majority of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators supporting B.S. Yeddyurappa boycotted the assembly session that began here Tuesday.

This will be the last budget of the corruption-scarred BJP’s maiden rule in the southern state.

Assembly polls are due in April-May next year, though they may be held earlier if the faction-ridden party fails to solve the crisis triggered by Yeddyurappa’s demand for re-instatement as chief minister.

Yeddyurappa, who was forced to quit July 31 last year over corruption charges, led a boycott of the budget session that began Tuesday seeking a commitment from party’s national leaders that he will be made chief minister again soon.

BJP’s national leaders seem to have placated him somewhat as he has now dropped the demand that only he should present the budget and not Gowda, who took over from him Aug 4, ironically as his candidate.

Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai, a Yeddyurappa loyalist, told reporters here that the party central leadership “will be sending an emissary to Bangalore to resolve the leadership issue and Gowda will present the budget Wednesday”.

The ten-day budget session began with empty BJP benches prompting opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular members to mock the ruling party over the infighting for chief minister’s post.

Claiming the support of around 70 of the 120 BJP members in the 225-member assembly, Yeddyurappa has taken his supporters to a resort on Bangalore outskirts and staying put there.

It is still not clear whether he and all his supporters, which include several ministers, will attend the session Wednesday.

His camp had token presence in the house Tuesday - Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar and Public Works Minister C. M. Udasi, and two legislators, Lakshminarayan and Chandrakant Bellad.