The exit of a bitter 70-year-old Yeddyurappa, who started his public life with the RSS and joined the Jan Sangh, may not not pose any immediate threat to the government headed by Jagdish Shettar but comes as a huge setback to BJP which is devoid of a leader of mass appeal and stature in the state.
He plans to launch a regional party adopting the name of Karnataka Janata Party, already registered with the Election Commision.
A practitioner of ruthless politics, who cobbled a majority in the summer of 2008 by making MLAs of rival parties resign and get reelected, faxed a letter to party President Nitin Gadkari, resigning from primary membership of the party.
Yeddyurappa, who remained in power for 38 months and was unseated last year following the Lokayukta indictment of him in an alleged mining scam, later met Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah and submitted his resignation from the House seat.
"I am forced to take this hard decision to leave the party which I built in the state", a visibly emotional former chief minsiter said in a scathing attack on BJP leadership. "It was a couple of leaders who victimised and pushed me to this situation of no return".
While he mentioned no names, Yeddyurappa had in the past few weeks repeatedly targeted party leader H N Ananth Kumar and state BJP President K S Eshwarappa accusing them of conspiring against him. (More)
