BS Yediyurappa resigns as CM at 88, leaves his chair with tears and emotional speech

Bengaluru, Jul 26 (UNI) Ever a dutiful party worker, BS Yediyurappa delivered the most emotional speech of his life on Monday, spiced up with tears before he announced his resignation as Karnataka chief minister.
Amid the raw emotions that occasionally overpowered him, forcing him to pause in between for composure, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda for giving him an opportunity to serve the people of the state as the chief minister despite crossing the age of 75 years.
“I will tell this with humility. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda had held that no one above 75 years of age will be given a chance to hold power. However, they showed extreme love, affection and trust in me. They gave me an opportunity to serve as the chief minister for two years,” he said.
This was the theme he picked up in his emotional speech, saying it was imperative to work towards strengthening the party to post a victory in the next assembly elections.
“I am indebted to them (Modi, Shah and Nadda). Their ambition is to strengthen the party and bring it back to power. We will achieve this together. I need your cooperation. Let’s work together,” he said.
“Due to our own mistakes, we could not win 115-120 seats, which the party is capable of. However, in the coming days we will travel together across the state and make the party win 125-130 seats. This is my resolve. To that end, with or without power, I will do this. It’s my assurance to 6.5 crore people of this state,” he added.
And it was when he spoke about his role and sacrifices he made in bringing the party to power in the state from scratch, that his voice choked.
“You all know back then, there were only two of us in the Legislative Assembly who had won. Vasanth Bangera who won along with me from our party left and I was alone in my fight inside the Assembly. I have never looked back. I never worried that I was alone,” he said.
“At that time we did not have a car and bicycled to travel in Shivamogga district … It is surprising we tried to build the party with no support. Today the party has grown in strength. It is the tallest party in India. Eshwarappa and other leaders are seated here because of combined effort that the party could come back to power,” he added.
“I traveled across the state despite Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi’s participation and could not even gather 200 to 400 people at that time. Due to God’s grace we increased our tally from two MLAs to 4. If the party is in power in Karnataka today, it is because of the people of Shikaripura who elected me seven times. They stood with the party against the might of money, muscle, women and position of caste,” he said.
But for all the pain and anguish, Yediyurappa reminisced how he had spurned the union minister’s offer made to him by late Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“Then, Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked me to become a Union Minister. I said I must build the party in Karnataka. At no cost will I come to Delhi. Let me build the party here,” he said.