Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who struck a defiant note and cancelled his visit to Delhi on Sunday night, has been summoned to the capital amid strong indications that BJP may ask him to step down.
Yeddyurappa left Bangalore early on Monday morning and made a stop at Sathya Sai Baba's Ashram in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to seek divine help.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Education Minister VS Acharya told CNN-IBN that he will tell the BJP top brass that the party needs Yeddyurappa as their leader in the state.
The BJP leader was supposed to reach Delhi on Sunday evening to meet party president Nitin Gadkaribut then dropped his plans.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari had called a meeting of top leaders Arun Jaitely, Anant Kumar and Ram Lal on Sunday night when it was decided to summon him on MOnday.
"The senior leaders have expressed their views in today's meeting and then authorised me to take a decision on Karnataka. But I will discuss the issue again with Yeddyurappa before taking a decision," Gadkari had said after the morning meeting in which senior leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi,Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj were present.
Sources said there was a feeling in the meeting that it was becoming increasingly untenable for Yeddyurappa to continue in office at a time when the party was carrying on a campaign at the national level on the telecom scam.
All along the leaders had taken a lenient view of the opposition attack on Yeddyurappa against the backdrop of land scam charges and nepotism.
But sources said what seemed to have tilted the leaders' thinking were fresh media reports that talked of cheque transactions to the tune of Rs.20 crore being allegedly transferred to CM's sons and son-in-law from a Bellary mining company.
Sources said Gadkari was authorised to convey to Yeddyurappa that it would be better for him to make way for a leader with a clean image.
Yeddyurappa had booked his passage by a couple of evening flights but cancelled them.
The names of Panchayat Raj Minister Jagdish Shettar, a Lingayat like the CM, Law Minister Suresh Kumar and the Speaker K G Bopaiah are doing the rounds as replacement for Yeddyurappa.
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