The former Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, who will officially take charge as the Bharatiya Janata Party State unit president on Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14), appears to have set his eyes on the Chief Minister’s post two years ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.
The Shivamogga MP, whose appointment as State unit chief was announced on Friday, told presspersons on Saturday that he was but the “natural choice” as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the next election. He added that he was confident of “leading the party to victory with 150 seats” in the polls.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, who had to demit office following a series of corruption charges during his tenure as Chief Minister in 2011, said the courts had given him relief on many of the allegations, and he was “confident of getting justice in other cases”. The Lingayat strongman, who visited the seer of Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru and RSS headquarters at Chamarajapet in Bengaluru on Saturday, is planning a Statewide tour to “expose the corrupt Congress” in drought-hit areas soon after taking office, along with leaders of the party.
Saturday saw party leaders from across the State thronging his house in Dollars’ Colony.
I would be the natural choice as chief ministerial candidate, having been chosen as party chief at this juncture.
B.S. Yeddyurappa,
Shivamogga MP
