BANGALORE: A rift within the BJP seems to have delayed the launch of Namma Bengaluru, Nanna Koduge, a public-private partnership initiative. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had printed invitations and Chief Minister Siddaramiah was to launch the initiative on Tuesday last.
Opposition leader in the BBMP Council, Manjunath Reddy, said 500 invitations had been printed. “I received an invitation about three days back. As per the invitation, the chief minister was supposed to launch the initiative at Freedom Park. I got to know about the postponement only through the media,” he said.
A BJP councillor, who did not wish to reveal his identity, said Mayor B S Sathyanarayana seems to be trying to impress the chief minister and is ignoring senior leaders of the party. He said that in the invitation card, D V Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar’s names appear at the end of the list of invitees. Both are senior leaders and Union ministers, but protocol was not followed, he said. This has irked the BJP councillors, and is one of the reasons for the postponement, he said.
Another senior BJP leader blamed former deputy chief minister R Ashok. “When Ashok was district minister, he did not bother to take up any such popular programme or initiative. Initially, when the mayor announced this programme, not many thought that it will become popular. Now that many organisations are joining the initiative, Ashok did not want the mayor to get all the credit. He was upset that he was not consulted,” the leader said.
However, Jayanagar MLA B N Vijaykumar, who is the state BJP vice-president, said as Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda were busy with pre-budget meetings in New Delhi, the launch was postponed. “Moreover, there is the Assembly session going on,” he said.