CM Siddaramaiah called it a 'politically motivated' move.
In Vijayapura, Yediyurappa said neither he nor his son have made any such statements, and would not like to react to comments made by someone close to Vijayendra.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Friday downplayed the absence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the party's national executive committee meeting, claiming it was not the result of infighting within the party. "Infighting take place in the Congress and not in our party," senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi said. Denying any rift between senior leaders of the party, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, "There is no clash".
The Janata Dal-Secular leader, who was sworn-in Karnataka chief minister last week after the Congress extended unconditional support to his party, said he is ready with the guidelines on farm loan waiver, details of which will be disclosed on Wednesday.
After a meeting with B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday morning, Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari said that Sadananda Gowda will continue as Karnataka's chief minister.
Yeddyurappa appears confident that his will not be like the rest of the regional parties that Karnataka has seen. In this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Yeddyurappa hits out directly at Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and the BJP high command, and challenges them to 'dissolve the assembly and face the people'.
The Karnataka high court which on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa made a strong observation, "Taking a former chief minister into custody who continues to be in public life will humiliate him."
Even as B S Yeddyurappa arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday night to hold crucial talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party top brass over the leadership issue in Karnataka, state Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, state BJP President K S Eshwarappa and Law Minister Suresh Kumar too are expected to follow suit to thwart the former chief minister's agenda
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has entered rebel mode again. He is holed up with 30 loyal MLAs in a bid to pressurise the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership to make him the chief minister again.
Bharatiya Janata Party's B S Yeddyurappa will learn of his fate as Karnataka chief minister today as a trust vote will be held today in the Karnataka assembly. The trust vote comes after the Karnataka Governor had invited Yeddyurappa to stake claim to the government.
An angry External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday slammed Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa for his "wild and baseless" allegations on denotification of land during his regime in the state, and said they were aimed at character assassination.
A petition seeking cancellation of bail granted to family members of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, arrested in an alleged land scam case, was on Wednesday moved in the high court in Bengaluru.
The newly elected Congress legislators, who are staying at a resort on the city outskirts, also joined the protest.
The Congress said it will observe 'Save Democracy Day' on Friday with party workers and leaders holding protest marches at all district and state headquarters.
Yeddyurappa would take the oath alone as the chief minister and once the majority is proved on the floor of the assembly, cabinet members would be inducted.
Here's how Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders reacted after the Supreme Court ordered for a floor test in Karnataka on Saturday.
"Belgaum belongs to us and we need not seek the neighbouring state's permission to do whatever we want to do there. It is left to me and my government what we want to do there. Should we get their (Maharashtra's) permission for it?", he said. Maharashtra leaders remarks are "unwarranted and uncalled for", he told reporters in Bengaluru.
The BJP's parliamentary board, which held a meeting at 11, Ashoka Road, New Delhi, the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had inconclusive deliberations about the alliance of the southern states on Friday.
Unfazed by Yeddyurappa's unceremonious exit, the BJP on Thursday fielded its senior leader S Suresh Kumar, a fifth term MLA, for the post of the Speaker whose election will precede the trust vote.
The stand-off between the government and opposition continued in the assembly on Tuesday over an SIT probe into the audio clip.
According to some accounts, internal Congress surveys indicated a tough battle for the chief minister in Chamundeshwari.
'It's our duty to arrange food and other things for them. Some of them have diabetes and BP, that's why we arranged everything here'
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka over the border row, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Friday said Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is heaping 'grave atrocities' on Marathi people in the neighbouring state."Marathis are being assaulted with sticks and guns and beaten up like cattle. If the Karnataka government wants to display its masochism by attacking Marathi people, it should remember that Maharashtra is land of Shivaji Maharaj," fumed Thackeray.
The much-publicised threat to topple the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in the south by the newly formed Karnataka Janata Party of B S Yeddyurappa turned out to be a damp squib as the maiden meeting of the former chief minister's outfit on Friday postponed the deadline to January 15.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership of patronising illegal mining in Karnataka, the Congress on Thursday demanded the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. With the state Lokayukta report indicting the state government over the issue, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said, "Yeddyurappa must immediately resign from his post". "All these things are already in the public domain but now the Lokayukta has indicted the chief minister," he said.
Joining the outcry against the foreign tour of a group of 15 Karnataka legislators at a time when the state was reeling under drought, former chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday urged them to return immediately and monitor the relief works.
Anand Asnotikar, an MLA in the Gowda camp, has threatened to pull down the government if the chief minister is changed as demanded by the Yeddyurappa-led faction.
The Janata Dal-Secular in Karnataka said on Sunday that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was responsible for the "instability" of the BJP government and not the opposition. "The chief minister himself is responsible for the instability of his government and not the opposition parties," JDS state unit president H D Kumaraswamy said while participating in a function here.
Upping the ante, Bharatiya Janata Party strongman B S Yeddyurappa on Monday fielded a rebel candidate for the March 30 Rajya Sabha poll from Karnataka, as the stand-off with the party's central leadership over his reinstatement as chief minister intensified.
Are Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda's days numbered? Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who is currently camping in New Delhi, has raised his pitch to change Gowda, a move that is being strongly opposed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani.
'One should not forget that a party does not run because of a single individual. It runs on the collective effort of many; and not only Yeddyurappa, but a lot of other people have put in their efforts to build the party,' former Karnataka chief minister D Sadananda Gowda tells Vicky Nanjappa
Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership would step in to end the face-off between former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and state party President K S Eshwarappa over the leadership issue.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa has filed a petition before the Election Commission of India praying to disqualify Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa from his membership of the state assembly, alleging that the latter has furnished "false" affidavit concerning his assets and liabilities.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership tried to influence Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde against mentioning Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's name in the mining report that is all set to be released in July. "I was told by BJP leader Dhananjay Kumar (former Union minister from Mangalore) to go soft on Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa while preparing the report on illegal mining," said Justice Hegde.
While some would give the BJP full marks for starting early in the only state in the south where it stands a chance, the 'party with a difference' has fallen back on a tainted leader.
There appears to be some calm in Karnataka with B S Yeddyurappa and his 65 MLAs agreeing that Chief Minister D Sadananda Gowda would be the one presenting the budget in the state assembly Wednesday.
With Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj refusing to take any decision on the convening of the Karnataka legislative assembly session, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has decided to up the ante by holding protests across the state.
The state government has plunged into a crisis after 14 dissident MLAs -- 11 from the Congress and three from the Janaat Dal-Secular -- resigned and two independents withdrew support.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday indicated its central leadership was in no hurry to reinstate B S Yeddyurappa as chief minister of Karnataka even as his successor D V Sadananda Gowda said he would remain in the top post till the next assembly elections.
Gowda denied BJP had any role in the resignations when asked if it was part of "Operation Kamala".
