BJP top brass today asked the tainted Karnataka Chief Minister Mr. BS Yeddyurappa to resign within the next 12 hours paving the way for the election of a new legislature party leader tomorrow.

However, a defiant Yeddyurappa refused to attend a BJP parliamentary party meeting this morning in Delhi and flew back to Bangalore by an early morning flight to hold meeting with his loyalists.

The BJP president Nitin Gadkari and its top leaders M.Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan told him last night to quit in the wake of his indictment by the Lok Ayukta Justice Santosh Hegde in the illegal mining scam. “Our fight against corruption would be weakened if you don’t resign this time,” they told him.

Yeddyurappa arrived in Delhi last evening and was asked to attend a BJP Parliamentary party meeting. But, the defiant leader decided not to attend the meeting and left for Bangalore. The BJP leadership was not convinced with his explanation that the Lok Ayukta report didn’t contain any new allegations and there was no need for him to quit.

BJP warns its Karnataka MLAs

As the CM appeared to be defiant of the party’s directives to quit, the top BJP leadership has also warned its Karnataka MLAs to obey the directives of the party and fall in line or face the consequences of sacking.

Meanwhile, party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi that senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will fly to Bangalore Friday for the election of the new chief minister in Karnataka.