Ex-K’taka mins skip session as infighting festers

After skipping the session, Eshwarappa on Tuesday said Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has spoken to the party’s central leadership and that he is hopeful of being inducted into the cabinet soon.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit finds itself in a spot after former ministers KS Eshwarappa and Ramesh Jarkiholi decided to stay away from the winter session of the legislative assembly in Belagavi because they are upset over the delay in their re-inclusion in the cabinet , which they had to resign from, in June, and last year respectively.

BJP Shivamogga MLA and former Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa leaves after a press conference, in Bengaluru. (PTI)

Eshwarappa, a long-time BJP leader resigned when Belagavi-based contractor died by suicide in Udupi after accusing him of demanding 40% commission in public works. Jarkiholi, who defected to the BJP from the Congress in 2018, causing the collapse of the Janata Dal (S)-Congress government in the state, and who was later inducted into the cabinet of the BJP government that took over, resigned following his alleged involvement in a “sex for jobs” scandal.

After skipping the session, Eshwarappa on Tuesday said Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has spoken to the party’s central leadership and that he is hopeful of being inducted into the cabinet soon.

On Monday, Eshwarappa wrote to Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, seeking leave from the 10-day session, citing personal reasons. “I have been a member of the assembly since 1989. I have never taken leave since then. But I have decided not to attend it because I’m unable to answer the questions of my followers,” Eshwarappa said on Monday. “Despite getting a clean chit, why am I not in the cabinet?”

The Shivamogga City MLA also skipped the monsoon session in September to protest his non-induction into the cabinet. Eshwarappa on Tuesday said he has also asked the chief minister to induct Jarkiholi into the cabinet. Jarkiholi had to step down from the post of water resources minister in 2021 . “Not only me, but Ramesh Jarkiholi should also be made a minister because he too got a clean chit,” Eshwarappa said.

Bommai has maintained that both the leaders are justified in wanting to return to the cabinet after getting a clean chit, and said there are issues he needs to discuss with them in person. “Their absence should not be seen as a boycott of the session,” the chief minister told reporters on Tuesday.

Bommai also has to deal with the party’s patriarch in the state B S Yediyurappa, the former chief minister, who, said last week that he has his own strengths and that no one could finish him off politically. “No one can finish off anyone. I have my own strength. I have strengthened the party and toiled to bring BJP to power. The entire state knows this,” Yedirurappa said.

On Tuesday, Bommai also dismissed reports of differences with his predecessor. He said his relationship with Yediyurappa was like that of a father and son. “I have no difference of opinion with Yediyurappa,” he said.

Both Yediyurappa and Bommai travelled in the same car to the venue of a BJP event in Koppal on December 15. According to reports, Yediyurappa had initially decided not to attend the Koppal event.

BJP spokesperson S Prakash dismissed reports of infighting in the BJP and said Eshwarappa and Jarkiholi are dedicated to the party. “They have expressed their displeasure over non-inclusion in the cabinet. But they have always been loyal and dedicated to the party. There is no power struggle as such.” 

“Eshwarappa has made this very clear. He didn’t attend the previous session as well. He has only frankly expressed his opinion for his inclusion in the cabinet,” Prakash said. “There is nothing beyond it.”

Leader of Opposition in the Council BK Hariprasad, however, said, “It is not just Eshwarappa and Ramesh Jarkiholi. Every other member of the BJP is fighting each other. Indiscipline is a part of discipline in the BJP... they feel all the virtues under the sun should be followed by the Congress.”