Belgaum: Karnataka’s ruling BJP faces a tough assembly session from today as it stares at a split in its ranks following its former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s decision to quit the party to lead his own outfit.
Ahead of the six-day session in this north Karnataka city, about 500km from Bangalore, Yeddyurappa dared his former party to take action against ministers and legislators who might attend the formal launch of his party on December 9.
“If action is taken against ministers and legislators supporting me this (Jagadish Shettar) government will fall in 24 hours,” he warned while talking to reporters in Holalkere in Chitradurga district, about 230km north of Bangalore.
The former chief minister is to take over as president of the Karnataka Janata Party at a public meeting on December 9 at Haveri, about 150km from Belgaum and 400km from Bangalore.
He has been claiming support of around 70 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators, including several ministers. The BJP has 119 members in the 225-member assembly and 44 in the 75-member legislative council.
On Sunday, Yeddyurappa said he expected all the 70 supporters to attend the Haveri meet.
Already five assembly members, four council members and two of party’s 19 Lok Sabha members, one of who is his son B Y Raghavendra, have been openly assisting Yeddyurappa in the preparation for the Haveri rally.
The BJP has refrained from taking action against them, particularly assembly members, in view of the session.
It wants to wait till December 9 to see how many party legislators, including ministers, attend the Haveri rally and then act.
The ruling party’s problems would give enough ammunition to opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to hammer the Shettar government in the session.
IANS
