Make Yeddy CM or Party Chief, Demand 17 BJP MPs

New Delhi, Dec 16 (TOI): Karnataka BJP MPs, who are loyalists of B S Yeddyurappa, on Thursday met party leader L K Advani to press for the former CM's rehabilitation, insisting that only he could lead the party to victory in the next polls.

The 12 parliamentarians also submitted a letter signed by 17 MPs, stating that BJP was going downhill in the state since Yeddyurappa had to step down.

The party has 19 MPs from Karnataka in the Lok Sabha. The MPs demanded that Yeddyurappa, a prominent leader of the dominant Lingayat community that is loyal to BJP, be reinstated as CM or made state unit president as he is the best bet to ensure the party's return to power.

Sources close to Advani said, he heard the MPs and then asked them to meet party president Nitin Gadkari on the issue. Among those who signed the letter are Yeddyurappa's son and MP B Y Raghvendra, Bellary MP J Shantha, P C Mohan, Ramesh Katti, Shivkumar Udasi, P C Gaddigoudar, D B Chandra Gowda, Suresh Angadi, Janardhan Swamy, G M Siddeshwara, S Pakkirappa, G S Basavraj, Shivarama Gouda and N K Kateel.

Three of the 17 signatories - Prabhakar Kore, K B Shanappa, and Aayanur Manjunath - are from Rajya Sabha. Yeddyurappa had to step down as the CM on July 28 after he was indicted by the Karnataka Lokayukta in an illegal land allotment case. He was also jailed for a few weeks in graft cases.

Though he is not occupying any post, Yeddyurappa continues to have a hold on the party's unit in Karnataka. Sadanand Gowda, who replaced him as CM, was his choice.

However, new equations are emerging within the Karnataka unit. A pointer to this is J Shantha's assent to the demand to reinstate Yeddyurappa. She is the sister of B Shreeramulu, a close associate of the Reddy brothers, who rebelled against the party and won the Bellary Assembly seat as an independent, defeating among others the BJP candidate.