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“Issue is betrayal, not power transfer”
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, flanked by his party colleagues Ananth Kumar (left) and B.S. Yediyurappa, addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.
NEW DELHI: Yashwant Sinha, leader in charge of BJP affairs in Karnataka, speaking to journalists after the party decided to withdraw support to the Kumaraswamy government here on Saturday, said the issue was “not transfer of power” or “loss of an opportunity for the BJP to have its first chief minister in a southern State. We are the largest party in the Karnataka Assembly. Twenty months ago when the alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) was forged we could have insisted that the BJP should have the first chance to head the government.”
He said the BJP was acutely aware of the need to install a non-Congress government. For, the mandate of the 2004 election was a rejection of the Congress, whose strength was halved. When that opportunity came after the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, the BJP welcomed it.
Mr. Sinha said the issue was “betrayal” by the JD(S).
Would the BJP project Legislature Party leader B.S. Yediyurappa as its chief ministerial candidate as and when elections are announced?
All that Mr. Sinha and BJP president Rajnath Singh would say was they would name the nominee once the elections were called.
Karnataka BJP president Sadanand Gowda told The Hindu that the entire party State leadership favoured withdrawal of support and was happy with the decision taken by the BJP Parliamentary Board.
Mr. Singh chaired the meeting. Those present were L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh, Mr. Sinha, Ananth Kumar, Mr. Sadanand Gowda and Mr. Yediyurappa.
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