New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Sunday brokered a truce between party rebels in Karnataka and chief minister B.S. Yeddyruppa.
Making up: Karnataka CM B.S. Yeddyurappa (centre) offers sweets to dissident leader Janardhana Reddy (right) on Sunday. PTI
Yeddyurappa, whose ouster was demanded by the rebels, will continue as chief minister while a coordination committee will oversee the party’s affairs in the state.
A compromise between the two sides is understood to have been arrived at, under which a woman minister may be removed and the assembly speaker inducted into the cabinet.
Announcing the “amicable” settlement as a birthday gift to senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, who turned 83 on Sunday, party leader Sushma Swaraj said in the presence of Yeddyruppa and dissident leader and state tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy that there are no more “misunderstandings”.
Swaraj is tipped to head the seven-member panel that will include the chief minister, senior leader Ananth Kumar, state unit president Sadananda Gowda and G. Karunakara Reddy, the brother of Janardhana Reddy, who is also a minister.
Under the compromise formula, the chief minister may sack Shobha Karandlaje and induct speaker Jagadish Shettar into the cabinet. However, officials close to the chief minister said that the dissidents may not insist on Karandlaje’s removal.