After the Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde submitted his report indicting the chief minister, the ball was in the court of the BJP bosses. The main reason why they took a quick call was there was not much time left with the monsoon session of Parliament beginning from August 1. If the BJP wants to attack the government on corruption, then it has to set its own house in order. Yeddyurappa, who became the first BJP chief minister in the south, was becoming more of an embarrassment than strength.

The BJP’s dilemma has reached a now or never situation. Unseating him might result in paying a heavy price for the party but in the larger scheme of things sacrificing Yeddyurappa was the only option the BJP high command had.

The chief minister does not have many friends in the party. It is said that senior leader L.K. Advani was of the view that he should go. General Secretary Ananth Kumar has been making mischief from the day Yeddyurappa had become the chief minister because he wants to occupy that chair. Former BJP President Venkaiah Naidu, who has interests in the state, was also not with the chief minister. The two Leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley too would be better off with Yeddyurappa out of the scene during the monsoon session. BJP President Gadkari has been supporting the chief minister all along but could do no more. Pressure was coming from both the state unit as well as the national leaders. The RSS too cannot openly support corruption charges. So he is facing pressure from all quarters.

In such a splendid isolation, what were the options open to Yeddyurappa? He tried all tricks in his bag. He had managed to survive many other scandals in these past three years but this time the threat was real. Left to him, the chief minister wanted to continue. The first option was to brazen out the crisis but this option was not the best for the BJP bosses.

The second option was to buy time. That was why the chief minister’s inner coterie was talking of taking three months time to study Hegde’s report, which runs into thousands of pages. They were hoping that within three months passions may cool down and he may escape once again. Buying time was his next best option. But the party was not willing to give him that luxury.

The third option was to choose someone of his choice to rule the state and run the government by remote control. After all RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had done it, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had done it, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa had done it for a short period and above Sonia Gandhi is doing it.

The fourth option was to dissolve the Assembly and call for mid term polls. The public mood is against corruption and it is a question mark whether the BJP will get even 100 seats. Many fear that it may result in a hung assembly.

The fifth option is to defy the BJP high command and set up his own party if he is sure of the MLAs to join him. This is more difficult than the other options. The BJP high command would use all methods to force Yeddyurappa follow its diktat.

The sixth option remains in the hands of the Governor. The BJP bosses knew that if the party did not act, he can step in and get rid of the chief minister on the basis of Lokayukta report.

Looking at the current public mood, it is time that Yeddyurappa makes a graceful bow rather than sticking to the chair. He will try to resist and it is going to be a tough task for the BJP high command to implement its decision.

The BJP leaders agree that it was Yeddyurappa who built the party in the state and was rightly chosen as the chief minister. Form then on he had been making one mistake after the other. The first BJP chief minister did nothing to keep a clean image. He did not do much development work in the state for the people to adore him. He is said to have about 40 MLAs on his side but this is not enough to run the government.

The BJP has some effective and strong chief ministers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh and to a lesser extent in Jharkhand. But in Karnataka, Yeddyurappa had become an embarrassment to the party high command.

Getting rid of Yeddyurappa is an acid test for the present BJP leadership as gone are the days of Advani-Atalji duo to enforce their decisions. This would also send a signal to the public that BJP, despite lack of charismatic leadership could still enforce discipline. Whoever is chosen to succeed Yeddyurappa should have a clean image so that in the next Assembly elections, this tag of corruption would not be a weak point for the party. (IPA Service)