Yeddyurappa appears defiant, backed by 120 MLA

New Delhi/Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who struck a defiant note and cancelled his visit to Delhi on Sunday, has been summoned here on Monday amid strong indications that BJP may ask him to step down.

The Chief Minister, who is facing allegations of corruption and nepotism, dropped his plans to fly to Delhi in the evening for a meeting with BJP president Nitin Gadkari who was authorised this morning to take a decision on Karnataka.

Top BJP leaders including Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and BJP General Secretary (Organization) Ramlal met with Gadkari late in the night when it was decided to summon him in the morning following his cancelling the visit.

"The senior leaders have expressed their views in today's meeting and then authorised me to take a decision on Karnataka. But I will discuss the issue again with Yeddyurappa before taking a decision," Gadkari had said after the morning meeting in which senior leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj were present.

Sources said there was a feeling in the meeting that it was becoming increasingly untenable for Yeddyurappa to continue in office at a time when the party was carrying on a campaign at the national level on the telecom scam.

All along the leaders had taken a lenient view of the opposition attack on Yeddyurappa against the backdrop of land scam charges and nepotism.

But sources said what seemed to have tilted the leaders' thinking were fresh media reports that talked of cheque transactions to the tune of Rs.20 crore being allegedly transferred to CM's sons and son-in-law from a Bellary mining company.

The sources said Gadkari was authorised to convey to Yeddyurappa that it would be better for him to make way for a leader with a clean image. Yeddyurappa had booked his passage by a couple of evening flights but can celled them.

The names of Panchayat Raj Minister Jagdish Shettar, a Lingayat like the CM, Law Minister Suresh Kumar and the Speaker K G Bopaiah are doing the rounds as replacement for Yeddyurappa.