Won't merge with BJP, will back Modi for PM: Yeddyurappa

After initially sparking speculation that he could return to his former party, rebel BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today said that the Karnataka Janata Party will not merge with the BJP. “We have unanimously decided not to support any party. We will have our own identity,” Yeddyurappa said today. [caption id=“attachment_1120119” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BS Yeddyurappa with his party members. PTI[/caption] However, he said that his party will support the NDA. “We have decided to support the NDA and Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate,” Yeddyurappa said. The KJP central executive had yesterday authorised Yeddyurappa to take a decision on merging the KJP with the BJP. Yeddyurappa resigned from BJP and his assembly membership on 30 November, severing his 40-year-long association with it. Zee News had reported that a section of Karnataka BJP unit led by former chief DV Sadananda Gowda has been lobbying for taking back Yeddyurappa as failure to do so could hit the party’s performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Yeddyurappa had left the BJP after the party rebuffed his repeated attempts to regain Chief Ministership and refused to make him chief of the the state unit. With agency inputs