Yeddyurappa to attend BJP national executive on Friday

In a U-turn, former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has decided to attend the Bharatiya Janata Party national executive meet at Mumbai.

A communication from his office stated that he would attend the meet and arrangements have been made regarding his appearance before the court on Friday.

"Yeddyurappa will fly to Mumbai on Friday morning to attend the BJP national executive meeting after he had a telephonic conversation with Nitin Gadkari (BJP president) and senior party leader Arun Jaitley," a source close to Yeddyurappa said.

Yeddyurappa, who is sulking over the party central leadership for 'sidelining' him, said earlier he could not attend the executive due to pending court cases, but would go on Friday if possible.

"I could not attend the BJP national executive meet due to some cases filed against me in Lokayukta court. If possible I will go on Friday," he told the media. He had earlier made it clear he would not attend the BJP meet.

Yeddyurappa had triggered the recent crisis with nine ministers loyal to him submitting their resignations, insisting on change of leadership of Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda amid speculation that he might split the party. He, however, said he had decided to quit the party but deferred his decision.

Incidentally, Yeddyurappa has not missed a single executive meeting of the BJP in the last two decades.

With inputs from PTI