Senior BJP leaders from Karnataka to meet Shah, Nadda in Delhi

New Delhi (India), July 24 (ANI): Senior BJP leaders from Karnataka will be reaching the national capital by Thursday to discuss the party's next move with top party leadership in the wake of the collapse of JD (S) - Congress coalition government in the state.
The leaders including former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar, J Crew Madhuswamy, Arvind Limbawali and some others will be meeting BJP Chief Amit Shah and working President J P Nadda in Delhi, sources said on Wednesday.
After the fall of HD Kumaraswamy government, the state BJP is willing to stake claim to form the next government under the leadership of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa but the central leadership seems to be in no hurry.
They want to clear the move of staking claim only after it gets assured of a comfortable situation.
The move seems to be a part of party's strategy in view of various issues involved in the political situation arising out of the rebellion by more than 15 MLAs of Congress and JD(S) that led to the fall of the coalition government.
The central leadership of the party has not taken any decision so far on government formation.
"We are going to stake a claim. There is no doubt about it. It may take some time," a senior BJP leader told ANI.
One of the reasons the central BJP leadership is not rushing into any decision is because of the possibility of bye-elections in more than 15 Assembly seats if the resignations of the rebel MLAs are accepted or they are disqualified. In such a case, the BJP may have to win a considerable number of them to secure a comfortable majority.
Yeddyurappa, however, is trying to convince the leadership that winning majority of seats would not be much of a problem and in case the need arises there are more Congress and JD(S) MLAs who are willing to resign and fight on BJP's ticket.
He claims that some of the Congress-JD(S) leaders are in touch with him and are eager to cross over.
Yeddyurappa, according to sources, is claiming the Chief Minister's post as he is already the leader of the Legislature Party in the state Assembly and also the chief of the Karnataka BJP unit.
With the collapse of the coalition government after Tuesday's trust vote, it was expected that the BJP will stake claim to form the next government within 24 hours.
Yeddyurappa on Wednesday had said that he is waiting for instructions from his party leadership on the formation of the party government in Karnataka following the fall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government.
However, the central leadership has not yet given its green signal.
The Congress-JD (S) government collapsed after it lost the vote of confidence, garnering 99 votes against the 105 to the BJP. However, 15 rebel MLAs, 3 independents and 2 absentee Congress MLAs are still part of the House. (ANI)