Yeddyurappa seeks time; to meet top BJP leaders

Putting up a brave face despite the damning indictment by the state Lokayukta on illegal mining, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday said his government needs time to study the "voluminous" report submitted by the anti-corruption watchdog and maintained that "most of its points" were pending in courts.

Reacting to the report of Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, Yeddyurappa pointed out that it was a voluminous report running into hundreds of pages and had 31 chapters, adding that the state government needed time to comprehensively consider it.

"However, when we notice the report, it appears that there are repetition of old points on (illegal) mining. Most of the points are pending before the Supreme Court and high court," he said.

Yeddyurappa said the report would be discussed in detail at Thursday's cabinet meeting scheduled for 3.30 pm.

"After all the information, we will take a decision on what we should do going forward," he said.

He said he, along with the party's state unit President K S Eshwarappa and some "important leaders", will brief the Bharatiya Janata Party's central leadership in Delhi on the report on Thursday.

Earlier, the chief minister had held a meeting of BJP legislators, where he said that there would be no question of him stepping down. 

Yeddyurappa added that if there was too much pressure on him to resign, he should be given the task of choosing his successor.

While Yeddyurappa would prefer either Dr Acharya or Sadanand Gowda, some ministers have opposed his choice.

With additional inputs from PTI