MYSORE: It is no secret that former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had foes aplenty, both among the Congress and BJP. However, what has caught many in the Congress off-guard is the growing tribe of sympathisers for him.
With many Congress leaders, including Union Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa, praising the BJP leader - who was forced to step down as CM and continues to face corruption charges - in public, one needs no seer to state that all is not well within the grand old party of India. Many BJP leaders fear Yeddyurappa may quit BJP after being denied a plum party posting.
Muniyappa had recently praised Yeddyurappa as the best-ever chief minister Karnataka had, while wishing him to emerge clean from the charges levelled against him. It was, therefore, only natural that eyebrows in Congress circles twitched till it led to a deformity. The timing of his statement, too raises questions - when he has been assigned with the task of gearing up the party in the Old Mysore region to take on the BJP and JD(S) in the 2013 general elections.
While the Congress in both houses of the Legislature may have gone hammer and tongs against Yeddyurappa’s largesse to religious mutts in the state, Muniyappa lauded him for the same gesture. It may be intriguing to note that Muniyappa himself was once a staunch critic of Yeddyurappa and Operation Lotus, the BJP’s covert operation to lure Opposition legislators into its fold.
Ditto with Congress MP H Vishwanath. Not too long ago, he made a surprising turn on Yeddyurappa, claiming he was a scapegoat of the state government’s fallacies by the RSS. He suggested that Yeddyurappa should launch his own party.
Yeddyurappa has been in the Congress’ limelight for other reasons - Deputy Opposition Leader in Assembly T B Jayachandra praising him for irrigation projects, Congress leaders hobnobbing with the former CM, to name a few.
However, regional Congress leaders, when questioned on Vishwanath’s comments, said, “It may have been a sarcastic comment.”