BENGALURU: There appears to be an exodus of sorts from Bengaluru to New Delhi, as the rumbling dissidence in the BJP refuses to die down. Two days after dissident BJP MLA Basanagouda Yatnal made a hush-hush visit to the capital, minister Murugesh Nirani rushed off to Delhi on Friday. The visits come ten days after another dissident minister, C P Yogeeshwara, had boarded a flight to Delhi.
Not to be left out of all this toing and fro-ing, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s political secretary MP Renukacharya has said that he too will head to Delhi with representatives from Kalyana Karnataka, Mumbai Karnataka, Madhya Karnataka and Dakshina Karnataka, to speak to the party high command and inform the leaders about dissidents making statements against the state leadership and CM.
The big question is: Why is everyone making a beeline for Delhi, and who are they meeting? Curiously, all these journeys are taking place just a few weeks after BJP General Secretary Arun Singh’s visit to Bengaluru to deal with dissension in the party, when he had met most of the dissenters. Yediyurappa and his team are banking on Arun Singh to present their case, especially as he is said to have a good rapport with the central leadership.
Party sources said the leaders who head to Delhi primarily seek to meet BJP President J P Nadda, General Secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, who is from Karnataka, or Home Minister Amit Shah. But when they are denied access to the big three, they try to meet Arun Singh or senior party functionaries in Delhi to express their grievances -- that the party has not called for a Legislative Party meeting for close to two years, that Yediyurappa’s family members interfere in governance, and that the state leadership has reached some sort of equation with opposition leaders. All these grievances have been raised many times over.
While Yatnal, Yogeeshwara, Aravind Bellad and AH Vishwanath are in touch with each other constantly, Murugesh Nirani appears to be the lone wolf, who is said to be on good terms with Shah and other Delhi leaders. Nirani sees Yatnal and Bellad as rivals, because all three are Lingayat Panchamsalis.
Terdal BJP MLA Siddu Savadi was also seen in the party office in Delhi on Friday.