Yeddyurappa supporters step up campaign

 With BJP central leadership

commencing the exercise to appoint a new chief for the party's

Karnataka unit, supporters of former chief minister B S

Yeddyurappa, a keen aspirant for the job, today stepped their

campaign in support of their leader. Supporters of Yeddyurappa today met at the residence of

Public Works Minister C M Udasi and took stock of the

developments and the thinking by the party high command over

naming a successor to K S Eswarappa, who has joined the

Jagadish Shettar ministry. Udasi, refusing the divulge the details of discussions,

held at his house, however said "the issue of appointing new

president will be decided by high command leaders and not me". Eswarappa, participating in the BJP national executive

underway at Surajkund in Haryana, has said the party would

choose a new Presdident for the state unit in a day or two. Excise Minister M P Renukacharya, a hardcore supporter

of Yeddyurappa, sought to raise the pitch saying the former

chief minister was a "mass leader and should not be confined

to lingayat community". According to sources, at the meeting the Yeddyurappa

loyalists decided to tour various parts of the state to drump

up people's support for their leader. Yeddyurappa, who has been sulking over being sidelined in

the party after being forced to quit as chief minister last

year, has boycotted the party national executive and is

undergoing body rejuvenation treatment at the Art of Living

Nature Cure Centre. With the BJP taking on the UPA on the issue of corruption,

the central leadership is said to be not in favour of making

Yeddyurappa, battling a spate of corruption cases, to head the

Karnataka unit ahead of next year assembly elections.