Embarrassed by the episode of its leaders indulging in mud-slinging after the Assembly poll debacle, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has identified 11 leaders who have been making controversial remarks and has entrusted veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa with the task of making them fall in line with party discipline.
The party began the exercise on Friday as six of the 11 leaders were spoken to at the party State office in Bengaluru by a team of senior leaders including Mr. Yediyurappa, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, State president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, and national general secretary C.T. Ravi.
The 11 leaders who have been marked by the party for their controversial remarks are M.P. Renukacharya, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Murugesh Nirani, Prabhu Chauhan, Pratap Simha, Ramesh Jigajinagi, Dasarahalli Muniraju, A.S. Nadahalli, Charanthi Math, Thammesh Gowda, and Ishwar Singh Thakur. Of them, the BJP disciplinary committee had served a show-cause notice only on Mr. Renukacharya for his aggressive remarks against the party’s pre-poll decisions.
It is learnt that though the party initially wanted to serve notice on others too, but changed its mind later as some of them reportedly assured the party leadership that they would mend fences.
Those who clarified
Six of them - Mr. Yatnal, Mr. Simha, Mr. Muniraju, Mr. Nadahalli, Mr. Math, and Mr. Gowda – appeared before the party leadership in Bengaluru on Friday and clarified that their intention was not to embarrass the party.
According to BJP State general secretary Ravikumar, the six were heard by the party leadership and also told to desist from issuing such statements in public again.
Momentum for Lok Sabha
Mr. Ravikumar said Mr. Yediyurappa had been given the responsibility of talking to the remaining leaders who have indulged in blame game. This is so that the party could focus on building momentum for launching preparations for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP that has not acted for a long time on the controversial statements by its leaders has begun the task of setting its house in order ahead of the Legislature session set to begin from Monday.
The BJP leadership is planning to use the legislature session as a platform for beginning the process of strengthening the party organisation in view of the Lok Sabha polls.
