I CHALLENGE the BJP to dissolve the assembly: Yeddy

He is the man in the hot seat today. After resigning from the Bharatiya Janata Party a week ago, former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa launched his new party -- the Karnataka Janatha Party, on Sunday at Haveri, a small town in north Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa appears confident that his will not be like the rest of the regional parties that Karnataka has seen. In this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Yeddyurappa hits out directly at Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and the BJP high command, and challenges them to 'dissolve the assembly and face the people'.

How has the reaction to the launch of your new party been?

It has been good and a lot of people are expected to take part. It will be a party with a difference and the people of Karnataka will support me.

Are you sad or upset that you had to walk out of a party you were associated with for the past four decades?

It has upset me to no end. I built the party right from scratch in Karnataka. I was with the party and toured the state several times even when there were only 2 members of Legislative Assembly in the party. I have been let down badly.

However, today is a new beginning for me and it is a big day. I have a lot of work to do. I am nearing 70, but I still have the determination to work for the people of Karnataka.

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You had said that you will not topple the government. However now you sound a bit more aggressive challenging the BJP to dissolve the House. What has changed?

If you recollect, I had said on the day that I resigned that I will not pull down the government. I had also said that the BJP should not trouble me or any of my followers. Today they seek to trouble me and have taken action against my followers.

The is being vindictive. I still have no intention of pulling down the government. If they have the courage, let them dissolve the House and face the people instead of troubling me.

It was with your support that Shettar became the chief minister. Today you are against him. It happened in the case of (former chief minister) Sadananda Gowda as well. What keeps going wrong?

Yes I made both of them chief ministers. The people had voted for me as CM and not them. However I don't know why, but they began to think that it was the high command which made them the CM. The party came to power in Karnataka because of me.

I built the BJP in Karnataka with a lot of effort. Both Shettar and Gowda thought that they were made the CM due to the efforts of the high command. I want to ask Shettar why he chose to stab me in the back. Has the high command become too big for him and has he forgotten who made him the CM?

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How would you react to the action taken against your supporters?

I chose not to react to such vindictive politics. But I would like to point out that they are being selective. I have the support of more than 40 MLAs. Will they dismiss all 40 of them? I am sure they will not as they want to save the government.

I challenge them to dismiss all my supporters. I can bet they will not. On Saturday, four more of my supporters had called me and told me that they wished to resign. I told them not to do so.

You continue to speak about support within the BJP. You want your followers to join you, but will not pull down the government.

Yes I will not pull it down. How can I pull down a government which was installed by the people of Karnataka? On the other hand, the BJP wants to play it safe. They are pushing me by irritating me and want the government to fall so that they can put the blame on me.

You had said that you regretted the decision to resign as CM.

Yes I had said that. Has action been taken against all those who have accusations against them? I had the support of 75 MLAs that day when I went to Raj Bhavan to tender my resignation. I chose to uphold the values of the party. But the high command mistook it for my weakness.

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Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwrappa has been outspoken against you. Your comments?

I only have to ask him one thing -- If you have the courage, dissolve your government and come face me in the elections. He keeps speaking about the high command which does not know the ground reality in Karnataka.

Many of these people do not have the people of the state in mind. On Saturday, they all flew to Delhi on the pretext of meeting the prime minister regarding the Cauvery issue. However, the idea was to meet their high command and discuss me.

I had told many leaders that let us go to Delhi together and discuss the issue (Cauvery) with the PM. I had said that let us all resign if we do not have a favourable decision on the issue. But they chose to dodge me. The issue was never discussed the way it should have been. The entire agenda was to discuss me.

Why were you constantly at war with the BJP high command?

The high command in Delhi does not like to see anyone grow. They try and scuttle people who want to grow. They have an ego and want us to be at their mercy at all times. Many do that, but I did not. That was the basic problem.

You have chosen to launch your new party on Congress president Sonia Gandhi's birthday. What is the reason?

Please do not read too much into all this. There was the special session on Belgaum starting on Monday and Sunday being a holiday I decided to launch the party. It is just a coincidence and nothing more than that.

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