Why BSYs time ran out: Letter to Gadkari didnt help,RSS drew line

But with Parliament scheduled to begin on August 1,sources said,the BJP could not afford a more spacious time-frame on this sensitive issue. Yeddyurappa was told that any stricture from the court or the Lokayukta could not be ignored in the prevailing climate. He was asked to fight it out politically; meanwhile,he could be given a new role in party affairs.

Yeddyurappas letter also carried an amplification of Gadkaris earlier line that the CM may have erred morally but there was nothing illegal about it. It alleged that Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde was playing to the gallery; that he was lumping Andhra Pradesh mining/export figures with Karnatakas; and focusing on the Yeddyurappa years while going soft on similar misdemeanours in the Congress and JDS regimes earlier.

Along with his letter to Gadkari,Yeddyurappa also sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking for yet another committee this one to inquire into allegations that Hegdes phones had been tapped in Karnataka.

As it turned out,Yeddyurappas two letters failed to buy him wiggle room. One reason for this was that the RSS perceived to be backing him had made it clear that it would not intervene in his favour.

In fact,the RSSs distancing from Yeddyurappas battle for survival in the face of insistent corruption allegations against him had begun several months ago,sources said,with the Sanghs central leadership conveying to its local officebearers that they should not be seen to be taking sides.

At the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha,the highest body for policy formulation and decision-making in the Sangh,held at Puttur in Karnataka from March 11 to 13 this year,the issue of corruption was extensively discussed and a message conveyed from the RSS to the BJP: if,to keep its pitch high against the Congress on corruption,some sacrifices needed to be made,so be it.

In other words,though no names were taken,the implication was clear: the BJP must not hesitate to ask for the heads of Yeddyurappa and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal,also facing charges of corruption.

In the event,Pokhriyal survived because elections in Uttarakhand are only a few months away. But caught between the Lokayukta report and a new Parliament session,Yeddyurappas time was finally up.