Yeddyurappa not to pick his successor: BJP

IANS

Bangalore, 30 July 2011: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday ruled out allowing scam-hit Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to pick his successor, even as it continued efforts to make him quit without conditions.

 

"The new chief minister will be decided based on the opinion of all legislators," state Home Minister R Ashoka told reporters after a meeting of senior state party leaders.

 

To help elect a new leader of the legislature party, central observers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley met Yeddyurappa on Saturday morning, their second meeting in two days.

 

Yeddyurappa reportedly told them he would resign Sunday, but his supporters were against it. Legislators and ministers supporting Yeddyurappa, however, appeared to change their tack on Saturday.

 

"We are against Yeddyurappa’s resignation. However, we will abide by his decision," Excise Minister MP Renukacharya and Assembly member Belur Gopalakrishna told reporters.

 

On Friday, their assertion was "no question of Yeddyurappa resigning".

 

However, the supporters continued to demand that Yeddyurappa be allowed to name his successor as well as new ministers and be made state party chief.

 

State unit chief KS Eshwarappa was confident that all issues would be resolved by Saturday evening and that Yeddyurappa would resign.

 

"Yeddyurappa met our central leaders on Saturday morning. He said he would resign on July 31. He would do so," Eshwarappa told reporters. He also maintained that Yeddyurappa had not placed any condition for resigning.