New Delhi/Bangalore, Mar 21 (PTI) The BJP leadership was tonight locked in hectic consultations over the crisis in Karnataka as former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa arrived in the capital to mount further pressure for his reinstatement while Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda ruled out his own removal.
On a day the party suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha by election in Udupi-Chikmagalur, Gowda's bastion, Yeddyurappa reached Delhi with a clutch of supporters to up the ante.
Yeddyurappa claimed he has no demands but his mission was obvious in that he would be meeting senior party leaders L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley.
"I will accept whatever responsibility they will give me in future," he told reporters in Bangalore before leaving for Delhi.
In the capital, he said he had not set any ultimatum or deadline to the party and left it to the leadership to take any decision.
"I have not asked for anything. They are not giving me anything," said the former Karnataka Chief Minister who was forced to step down last year in the wake of Lokayukta indictment in the mining scandal.
Gowda, who was also summoned to the capital, said in Bangalore that there will be no change of guard in Karnataka.
"Party president Nitin Gadkari has assured (me) that there will be no leadership change. The discussions in Delhi would be centred around the causes that led to the defeat of BJP candidate in the Uudpi-Chikmagalur bye-election", he told reporters before leaving ro Delhi.
Yeddyurappa stepped up his campaign for reinstatement ever since the Karnataka High Court set aside the Lokayukta order.
Gadkari also reached the capital this evening and will hold a meeting with Yeddyurappa. The BJP president held parleys with Jaitley late into the night.
