‘No move to oust Yediyurappa’: Pralhad Joshi quashes rumours of leadership change

Speculations have been rife for sometime that some members sought Yediyurappa’s removal from the Chief Minister’s post.
Pralhad Joshi
Pralhad Joshi
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Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday asserted that there was no proposal before the ruling BJP’s high command to seek Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s resignation. Joshi told reporters in Hubbali that "there is no proposal before the high command seeking Yediyurappa's resignation.” His statement came hours after the Chief Minister said that he was ready to resign if the party's leadership wanted him to do so. Joshi — who is a fourth-term Lok Sabha member from Dharwad constituency — ruled out any change in leadership.

Pralhad Joshi said that the party was focused on containing the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic which claimed 31,580 lives and infected 26.95 lakh people across the southern state till Saturday. "The party is seized of only one issue and that is how to handle the COVID-19 situation and not leadership change," reiterated Joshi. Speculations have been rife for a while of attempts being made to expel Yediyurappa as CM, within the party.

The party’s state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel also said there was no discussion on change in the Chief Minister's post. "As the party has not discussed the issue at any level, the question of a change of leadership does not arise," Kateel told the media in Mangaluru. He is a third-term Lok Sabha member from Dakshina Kannada seat. Refuting rumours of any such attempts being made by other members, he said that a meeting of all legislators and Ministers would be convened in June, in Bengaluru, to sort any differences. Kateel added that Yediyurappa will continue to be the CM until the end of the Assembly term up to May 2023.

State Revenue Minister R Ashoka also came in support of the CM and said he is BJP’s legislative leader and that he would continue in the post. He told the media that Yediyurappa has been leading the fight against the pandemic, visiting hospitals, meeting COVID-19 patients and holding meetings to contain further spread of the coronavirus.

Yediyurappa, 78, became Chief Minister for the fourth time on July 26, 2019 after the 14-month-old Janata Dal-Secular (JDS)-Congress coalition government fell when HD Kumaraswamy resigned from his post as Chief Minister upon losing the confidence vote in the state legislative Assembly on July 23, 2019. Yediyurappa in 2018 had taken oath as the CM for the third time but resigned before the trust vote as the BJP was short of a simple majority (113) in the 225-member lower house after the party won only 104 seats in the Assembly elections then.

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