Will return as CM in six months: Yeddyurappa

Outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who lost his job in the wake of his indictment by Lokayukta in the illegal mining scam, on Tuesday publicly said he would return to this post in six months.

Sixty-eight-year-old Yeddyurappa, who is the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of a southern state, made this remark at an informal meet with state government officials.

Video footages beamed by TV channels showed one unidentified official telling Yeddyurappa how it had been a pleasure to work with him. And the BJP leader's response was that he would be back as the state chief minister in six months.

The remark by Yeddyurappa, who was forced to step down on Sunday, set tongues wagging as to whether it was said in jest or seriousness.

Yeddyurappa, who has been reportedly told by BJP central leadership that he will have a say in choosing his successor, has been solidly backing Udupi-Chikkamagalur member of Parliament D V Sadananda Gowda for the CM's post.  

Yeddyurappa's comments came on a day when he moved the Karnataka High Court seeking quashing of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining and questioned its recommendations to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Hours before Lokayukta Santosh Hegde demitted office, Yeddyurappa, who is nursing hopes that he will be absolved of all charges, simultaneously filed a petition with the anti-corruption watchdog seeking a review of its report.

Yeddyurappa contended in the petition that the stigma attached to him by his indictment would continue to haunt him and pleaded for an opportunity to prove his innocence.

Image: Outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa