A day after the awaited reconstitution of the BJP office-bearers was announced, the party was struck with dissidence by senior leaders with the MLA from Vijayapura Basanagouda Patil Yatnal’s outburst embarrassing the party again, while former Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda expressing his displeasure.
The new appointments, coming after the taking over of B.Y. Vijayendra as the president of the State unit, are being seen as those in favour of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s camp and have been frowned upon by these leaders.
“Mr. Yediyurappa’s team was KJP 1 when he had left the party and formed the Karnataka Janata Party. This is KJP 2 within the BJP. His grandson will form KJP-3 later. They are saying with this team, the BJP will win all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. This will collapse like a pack of cards after the results even if they fall short of winning one seat,” Mr. Yatnal told presspersons in Vijayapura on Sunday.
Commenting on his name not being part of the new office-bearers’ list, he remarked: “How will it have my name? We are workers of the nation. There is no value-based politics now and politics is filled with looters.”
Mr. Yatnal has remained disgruntled after the appointment of Mr. Viayendra, son of Mr. Yediyurappa, as the BJP state President and of R. Ashok as the Leader of the Opposition.
Though publicly he has denied it, Mr. Yatnal was interested in one of the positions and has been embarrassing the party with his public criticism since then. He, along with several leaders from North Karnataka, had pointed to a lack of representation to the region as both appointments were seen as those given to Old Mysore region.
Mr. Gowda, former Union Minister and MP from Bengaluru North, felt that there could be some problem in the list, and clarified that he would not term the team as inefficient.
He said that the leaders from Delhi should have discussed with senior leaders in the State before announcing the list.
However, Mr. Yediyurappa told reporters in Davangere that the list had been prepared considering all aspects. “A good team has been selected and is based on the opinion of all. This is not in anyone’s favour but in the favour of the BJP.”
He, however, refused to comment on the criticism of Mr. Yatnal.
First meeting of office-bearers on Tuesday
BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra will be holding the first meeting of the new office-bearers of the party in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Disclosing this to presspersons in Bengaluru, Mr. Vijayendra maintained that the list had been prepared by taking into account representation for different regions. He also claimed that the list had given adequate representation to the youth, while also honouring the presence of seniors.
