Gadkari to decide on BSY's fate as Karnataka CM

The BJP today said party chief Nitin Gadkari will take appropriate decision on BS Yeddyurappa's reinstatement as Karnataka chief minister after discussions with senior leaders.

The BJP on Thursday said party chief Nitin Gadkari will take appropriate decision on BS Yeddyurappa's reinstatement as Karnataka chief minister after discussions with senior leaders.

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Hoping for a positive outcome, Yeddyurappa said he is confident that the party would take a right decision.

However, Karnataka chief minister Sadananda Gowda claimed he had been assured that there would be no leadership change.

Gowda on Thursday met the BJP top brass, including Nitin Gadkari and LK Advani.

"I am specifically telling that the central leaders told me that at present there is no change of leadership or any other position in the party," Gowda told reporters after meeting the BJP central leaders in New Delhi.

Asked if the party leadership had asked him to step down, he said, "That question does not arise."

Gowda, who was accompanied by BJP state chief K Eswarappa, had called on Advani, Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi. He then had a meeting with party president Gadkari, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Dharmendra Pradhan.

On Yeddyurappa building pressure on the party for his reinstatement, the chief minister said, "I don't know whether Yeddyurappa has come over here or he had discussions with the central leaders. That we are not aware because Yeddyurappa was not there when we discussed the matter with the central leadership."

Yeddyurappa, who has stepped up his campaign for reinstatement ever since the Karnataka high court set aside the Lokayukta order against him, is in New Delhi to meet BJP leaders.