R. Ashok, seventh-time MLA, was chosen as the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Friday, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose him as its legislature party leader amid discontent among a section of leaders. The BJP arrived at the decision nearly six months after the Assembly elections.
The selection of the 66-year-old leader, who is on good terms with the party’s newly appointed State president B.Y. Vijayendra, his father and veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa, and the former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, is being seen as a clear signal that Yediyurappa group is calling the shots in the party for now.
No alternative power centre
A few senior leaders of the BJP felt that the party central leadership may be in no mood to create an alternative power centre in the State unit after appointing Mr. Vijayendra as the party State president recently. The central leadership may be trying to put the entire responsibility regarding performance in the Lok Sabha elections on Mr. Vijayendra by choosing someone who is close to him to be the Leader of the Opposition.
Also, some leaders maintain that choosing a Vokkaliga MLA as the Leader of the Opposition could be an effort to ensure that the BJP’s Vokkaliga leadership is not ignored under the shadow of its alliance with the JD(S), which has a strong support base in the community.
The competition for the post had narrowed down to Mr. Ashok and C.N. Ashwath Narayan, who hail from the dominant Vokkaliga community, and OBC leader V. Sunil Kumar, going by the caste and community permutations as the party had already appointed a Lingayat leader as its State president.
Yatnal’s outburst
There were clear indications of discontent among a section of leaders as senior leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal did not mince words while expressing dissatisfaction over only leaders from the southern region of the State getting all the important positions in the party though it had a strong presence in northern region. “I will not keep quiet if North Karnataka is not given due representation. A lot of MLAs of the party are with us. But they do not have a voice,” he said.
Before the meeting, he also launched a veiled attack at Mr. Yediyurappa by arguing that the party should not come under the control of any particular family.
Mr. Yatnal and former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi went out of the legislature party meeting even before it started. Former Ministers S.T. Somashekhar and Shivaram Hebbar skipped the meeting. Mr. Yatnal took to social media and said, “A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”
Such a simmering discontent is being seen as a building-up of dissatisfaction among a section of leaders as well as disappointed aspirants after the party chose Mr. Vijayendra as party State unit.
Meeting with aspirants
Perhaps to douse such discontent, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP national general secretary Dushyanth Kumar Gautam, who arrived in Bengaluru as central observer for the selection of the Leader of the Opposition, met some aspirants for the post — Mr. Yatnal and Arvind Bellad — before the legislature party meeting to take them into confidence. She also paid a courtesy visit to the residences of Mr. Yediyurappa and Mr. Bommai.
