BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party was left red-faced two days before the bypolls to 3 Lok Sabha and 2 assembly seats when its Ramanagara candidate L Chandrashekar withdrew from the contest and rejoined Congress on Thursday, the last day of campaigning. He has extended his support to the Congress-JD(S) joint candidate Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Blaming the BJP leaders for his decision to quit the party, Chandrashekar said they had abandoned him after giving him the ticket. “After welcoming me to the BJP by giving the party flag, Yeddyurappa (state BJP chief) or any other leaders did not join me for campaigning. They neglected Ramanagara due to internal squabbles between the leaders within the party,” he told reporters.
The BJP leaders had promised to extend full support to take on Anitha Kumaraswamy, he said.
Rejecting Chandrashekar’s allegation that BJP leaders neglected him and did not bother to campaign for him, Yeddyurappa said, “We had taken the contest seriously and had also released an exclusive manifesto for Ramanagara.”
Interestingly, H Leelavathi, the BJP candidate in Ramangara Assembly constituency in the 2018 Assembly election, too left BJP. She joined JD(S).
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BJP leadership is reportedly considering to extend its support to one of the Independents in the fray to continue its fight against the coalition partners in Ramanagara.
Thursday’s development just ahead of polls is being seen as senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh’s response to BJP’s prediction of the fall of the coalition government with hints of another “Operation Lotus” after November 6, the day of the counting.
The shocking development could have its adverse impact on the prospects of BJP candidates in other constituencies too where bypolls are being held on November 3 — Mandya, Ballari and Shivamogga Lok Sabha seats and Jamakhandi Assembly seat. It has also exposed the groupism and infighting, for which the party has been paying the price, said observers.
Chandrashekar, son of Congress MLC C M Lingappa, had joined BJP just 3 weeks ago and was given the ticket a week ago. Suresh delivered the knock-out punch to BJP with Chandrashekar beside him at a press conference.
Feeling humiliated after Ranmanagara candidate L Chandrashekar withdrew from the contest, quit the party and joined Congres on Thuresday, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa has accused Chandrashekar of falling for the lure of money from Congress strongman D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh.
“Chandrashekar has betrayed BJP, God bless him,” Yeddyurappa said.
Yeddyurappa also denied the allegation that he did not even pick up the phone calls from Chandrashekar.
BJP national leadership which is busy in the assembly elections of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh is expected to take the embarrassment seriously and “initiate action to set the house in order as the party has high hopes from Karnataka for the 2019 Lok Sabah election,” said a BJP senior leader speaking to Express.