BENGALURU: A day after he said he would resign from the Chief Minister’s post if the BJP central leadership asked him to, BS Yediyurappa shot down a supposed signature campaign in support of him, and told his party MLAs to stop politicking and to work towards fighting the pandemic. The trigger was a statement by chief minister’s political secretary MP Renukacharya that he had collected the signatures of 65 party MLAs to support Yediyurappa’s continuation as CM.
Many senior leaders of the party slammed Renukacharya, saying such campaigns would look like the party is facing factionalism. Also, many MLAs, whose signature was on the letter, denied that they had signed any such document.
Renukacharya, who was at the Chief Minister’s residence on Monday morning, said, “I have the signatures of 64-65 MLAs. There is nothing to hide. A copy of the letter in Kannada will be sent to the state unit of the party, while the English version will go to party National President JP Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.”
Union minister Pralhad Joshi, RDPR minister KS Eshwarappa and others denied that there was such a signature campaign.“There is no campaign ‘for’ or ‘against’ Yediyurappa. Such acts have no value in BJP. Who is Renukacharya to collect signatures? Decisions in the party are taken by the central leadership and we all are loyal to the party,” lashed out Eshwarappa.
Most scathing was Dharwad West MLA Arvind Bellad, whose name has been doing the rounds as probable CM candidate. He said, “The last time signatures were collected was when MLAs hadn’t received funds from Eshwarappa’s RDPR ministry. Some 64-65 MLAs had signed, but the matter was written on one page and signatures were collected on another. I hope those signatures are not being misused. We will get clarity in the legislature party meeting.”
Focus on Covid fight: BSY to MLAs
Renukacharya responded, “Why would I antagonise the man who is declaring himself as the next chief minister? The letter for RDPR funds was submitted to the chief minister long back. The signatures I have now are to pledge support and loyalty to Yediyurappa. It is not a sign of rebellion.”
Meanwhile the CM tweeted, “At a time COVID19 pandemic has brought miseries to people making them suffer, every BJP MLA should return to their respective constituencies and prioritise managing the pandemic and helping people. It is my request that nobody should indulge in signature campaigns or make political statements and instead focus on helping people,” Yediyurappa said in a tweet.