Jaitley cancels his visit to Bangalore

BANGALORE: Senior BJP leader and Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who is expected to arrive here to try a patch-up between the warring groups in the state BJP, has reportedly cancelled his much-awaited visit to the state. The cancellation of Jaitley’s proposed visit has raised many an eyebrow in the BJP, which had pinned high hopes on the visit by the Central leader to bring an amicable settlement between the warring groups led by former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. Enraged by the defiance shown by Gowda to heeding the demands of the dissident group to convene a legislature party meeting, Yeddyurappa had decided to announce his “future plans”, but postponed it after the intervention of Jaitley and others at the last minute on Monday. Jaitley reportedly prevailed upon Yeddyurappa not to take any hasty decision and assured him of making a visit to Bangalore to hear the grievances of the dissident group. The cancellation of Jaitley’s visit was regarded as a major blow to Yeddyurappa, who is also reportedly facing imminent arrest after the simultaneous raids conducted by the CBI on his houses and those of his family members on Wednesday. The beleaguered BJP leader has also filed an anticipatory bail petition in the CBI Special Court in connection with illegal mining cases against him.