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In Yeddyurappa’s 10 weeks as CM, BJP’s best news comes from Cong, JDS | Opinion
In Karnataka, the only southern state that the BJP rules, a host of problems is dogging the saffron party.
It is rare in the new, post-2014, Modi-Shah Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that party leaders publicly take on their own government. But that is exactly what has happened in Karnataka. Basanagouda Patil Yatnal a former Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet took on, no-less, than the Prime Minister, when he pointed out that while PM Modi tweeted his concern for Bihar flood victims, he hadn’t spoken a word in public about Karnataka’s devastating floods. May be, Yatnal went on, the prime minister did not care as much about the state because there were no immediate polls in the state. He also lashed out at the three union ministers from the state, asking them to try and get flood relief from the Centre instead of just shuffling around in the state. Yatnal has been served a show-cause notice by the party.
However his, is not an isolated instance. Internal dissensions continue to wrack the party. Revenue minister R Ashoka, who was once a deputy chief minister of the state, did not even turn up for the swearing-in ceremony of the new state unit President Nalin Kumar Kateel, despite being in the vicinity when the event was taking place. The state BJP Yuva Morcha Vice President Bheemashankar Patil then wrote to Kateel warning him of dire consequences if Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa (BSY) is either ignored or sidelined. Patil, in his letter warned, the Lingayat vote as well as BJP’s future in 13 of the 30 districts in the state might be in jeopardy if BSY was overlooked. The letter reached the media even before it reached the party president.
Kateel was forced to go and meet BSY with both of them subsequently claiming that there were no differences between them. Kateel, the new state unit chief, has had to face the ignominy of even local party MLAs in Udupi district not turning up for a felicitation event organized in his honor, indicating the deep divisions within the party.
It is also no secret that a number of senior leaders are unhappy at being ‘ignored.’ Seven-term MLA Umesh Katti warned he would quit the party in case he was not accommodated in the next cabinet expansion. A number of factions have sprung up around region and caste lines. The 17 disqualified MLAs from Congress and JDS – who helped BJP come to power - are also unhappy that their ‘services’ have not been adequately recognized. They are also worried about the lack of clarity on the BJP giving them tickets for the by-polls now scheduled for December 5th despite public assurances by the CM.
That large parts of northern Karnataka - from where bulk of BJP’s 105 MLA’s come - bore the brunt of the devastating floods has contributed to the angst in the party. While Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman – a Rajya Sabha member from the state – toured the areas, there is a perception that the relief package was too little and too late. The Centre has released Rs 1,200 crore after a hue and cry by party supporters. One of them was BJP lawmaker Balachandra Jharkiholi who, upset at the pace of relief, even threatened to topple his own party’s government.
With the state treasury empty after the massive Rs 46,000 crore loan waiver scheme of the previous Kumaraswamy-led Congress–JDS coalition government, the Yeddyurappa government has little room to manoeuvre, unless it receives a helping hand from the Centre.
BSY has lamented that he is being forced to do a ‘tightrope walk’. With the winter session of the assembly starting from Thursday, the government and BJP can take solace only from the even more hopelessly divided opposition.
The Congress and JDS have been sniping at each other ever since the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government fell. The Congress is vertically divided between old-time ‘loyalists’ and the ‘interlopers’ led by Siddaramiah. The two factions had heated verbal exchanges in the presence of party’s Central leaders specially over who should lead the party in the legislature. The JDS has its own challenges with internal feud in the Gowda family and a section of legislators looking to cross over to remain in power. The by-polls on December 5th where the BJP needs to win at least half of the 15 seats up for grabs to remain in power, will determine whether BSY continues his tight-rope walk or will the state face fresh polls within the next six months or so.
