Eshwarappa to resign as Oppn mounts pressure

The 73-year-old influential leader’s resignation came after days of pressure from both the Opposition and within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Embattled Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa announced his resignation on Thursday, a day after he was charged for abetment of suicide of a contractor who alleged in his suicide note that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader demanded bribes from him.

KS Eshwarappa, one of the senior most leaders of the BJP in Karnataka, has been embroiled in several controversies in the recent past. (HT)

The 73-year-old influential leader’s resignation came after days of pressure from both the Opposition and within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Eshwarappa, the minister for rural development and panchayat raj, has repeatedly said that he never met the contractor, Santosh Patil, who was found dead in a Udupi hotel on Tuesday.

“Under the government led by Basavaraj Bommai, I have worked as a minister till today. Today, I have made a decision that I will resign from the post of minister tomorrow (Friday),” Eshwarappa said on Thursday evening in Shivamogga, about 350 km from Bengaluru.

“In such issues, those who have helped me grow, senior, to the chief minister and national leaders no one should feel embarrassed. For this one reason, I am resigning,” Eshwarappa said.

Patil, 37, was found dead in a lodge in Udupi on Tuesday. A contractor and BJP worker, Patil blamed Eshwarappa and his aides for forcing him to take the extreme step in his purported suicide note. The minister’s aides repeatedly demanded 40% commission to clear bills for a pending project, the note alleged. Since then, pressure has mounted on Eshwarappa to resign with the Opposition using the issue to take on the government, barely a year before assembly elections in 2023.

“He (Eshwarappa) spoke to me this evening. He has thought about this a lot. He said that he has complete confidence that I have no role or mistake in this. I have morality. But if I continue (as minister), it will give an opportunity for others to talk which is not needed. He said do the investigation and the truth will come out. I will come out clean and will not be in this position until then,” Bommai said on Thursday.

The chief minister added that there was “no pressure” from the BJP high command.

The incident comes at a time when the BJP government is battling several corruption charges, including laundering ill-gotten money using crypto currencies like Bitcoin, contractors’ association members alleging that political leaders and officials demand up to 40% commission to award public works, which have tarnished the record of Bommai, who took over as CM in July. With assembly elections about a year away, Opposition parties are trying to turn Patil’s death into a major electoral issue.

Eshwarappa, one of the senior most leaders of the BJP in Karnataka, has been embroiled in several controversies in the recent past. On February 9, he said the saffron (bhagwa) flag should replace the Tricolour; on February 21, he violated curfew orders and carried out a funeral procession of Harsha Jingade, better known as Harsha Hindu, ignoring explicit requests and warnings by the district administration after which right-wing groups going on a rampage, targeting Muslim neighbourhoods in Shivamogga, HT reported on February 23.

He had remained defiant but political pressure and the police case against him might have weighed against him. The First Information Report (FIR), a copy of which is with HT, listed Eshwarappa, as accused number 1 (A1) in the case, while his aides Basavaraj and Ramesh as A2 and A3 respectively. The FIR, which was filed 11 pm on Tuesday by a relative of the deceased, Prashanth Patil, said that Patil and other contractors completed road work in Belagavi in 2020-21 on Eshwarappa’s assurance that he would foot the bill. But when Patil and others met Eshwarappa and his associates Ramesh and Basavaraj requesting that bills of ₹4 crore be cleared, they demanded 40% commission, the FIR added.

The body of Patil was found on Tuesday morning. On Monday night, in a WhatsApp message, he told associates and some reporters that Eshwarappa was directly responsible for his death. Patil had earlier also said that the minister was seeking 40% commission, adding to the piling corruption charges against the BJP administration.

The issue provided ammunition to Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to attack the Bommai government. On Thursday, Congress leaders were detained while on their way to Bommai’s house. “He (Eshwrappa) has said that he will give it tomorrow evening but he never keeps his word,” said DK Shivakumar, president of the state Congress unit. The Congress demanded that Eshwarappa be booked under the Prevention Of Corruption Act and arrested at the earliest.

Eshwarappa has held various important positions in the BJP and had even locked horns with BS Yediyurappa on more than one occasion especially when trying to rally the Sangoli Rayanna brigade--a campaign to rally backward classes. Eshwarappa is trying to dislodge Siddaramaiah as the leader of the politically significant Kuruba community, who have the power to sway elections in several constituencies across the state.

On March 11, Patil wrote to Union ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that Eshwarappa was denying him his dues for the work carried out between February and May last year in Belagavi’s Hidalgo village. Patil, who identified himself as the secretary of a right-wing group, Hindu Vahini, was also a member of the BJP and by his own admission, had worked for the party even in the Belagavi Lok Sabha by-elections in April last year.

Eshwarappa filed a defamation case against Patil on March 29.

Eshwarappa found support from Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was also forced to step down last March after he was being accused in a sex scandal.

“I will hold a press conference on Monday. The same set of conspirators are behind (resignation) of Eshwarappa and Ramesh Jarkiholi. I will take permission from the high command and talk,” the former minster said.

Jarkiholi had earlier accused that there are a set of conspirators who had targeted him by leaking out the “doctored” video of an alleged sex tape and the same set of people are behind Eshwarappa’s resignation.