Bangalore : Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) President B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday said he would take a call on January 4 whether his loyalists in the BJP should continue to support the Jagadish Shettar government or not.

Speaking before launching his ‘Vidhana Soudha Chalo’ agitation at Freedom Park, in protest against the alleged non- release of funds earmarked to implement various schemes initiated by him during his tenure as chief minister, Yeddyurappa said the State government had lost the moral right to continue in office.  

The former chief minister has been claiming that he has enough loyalist MLAs in the BJP to pull down the government. “We will decide our next step of action on January 4 at the KJP executive committee meeting. If required, I will meet the governor to tell him that this government has lost majority,” Yeddyurappa said. But, no BJP MLA shared the dais with Yeddyurappa on Wednesday.

In sharp contrast, five MLAs and four MLCs had shared the dais with Yeddyurappa at the same venue on November 30, before the former chief minister submitted his resignation to his Assembly membership to Speaker K G Bopaiah. As many as 14 MLAs had attended the KJP launch convention in Haveri on December 9. Independent MLC M D Lakshminarayana and former minister K H Srinivas were the only two prominent leaders present with Yeddyurappa during Wednesday’s agitation.

Yeddyurappa claimed that during the last one-and-half years after he demitted office, as many as 10 lakh beneficiaries of various schemes including Bhagyalakshmi, old age pension and widow pension had stopped receiving their emoluments.

Dairy farmers had stopped receiving the Rs-two incentive for every litre of milk they sold in the last three months. The former chief minister claimed that only Rs 456 crore, out of the Rs 1,000 crore earmarked for the Suvarna Bhoomi programme this fiscal, had been utilised by the government.

“The State government has betrayed the people and they have forgotten the poor,” Yeddyurappa said and added that his party would not submit any memorandum to the State government. “We have lost trust in Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar. He is shamelessly sticking to his chair. He is like Kumbhakarna in deep slumber… What is the point in submitting any memorandum to him?” Yeddyurappa said.

Court arrest

Later, as the protesters started marching towards the Vidhana Soudha to lay siege to the seat of power, police officials denied them permission and stopped them on Palace Road.

Yeddyurappa and around 300 KJP supporters courted arrest. They were taken to the Adugodi police grounds in four BMTC buses and released later in the day.