BENGALURU: While dissidents in the BJP have been spewing spiteful reminders that Home Minister Amit Shah’s arrival on January 16 will help initiate certain changes in the State leadership, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s loyalists say that on the contrary, his coming will strengthen their leader’s hands.
The dissidents are hoping to get an audience with Shah, to speak of their grouses against the CM. Yediyurappa’s loyalists claim that Shah is visiting Bhadravathi in Yediyurappa’s home district Shivamogga, to send home the message that the party’s central leadership is strongly behind the Chief Minister. Shah is also likely to hold a one-on-one meeting with Yediyurappa during his Bengaluru visit.
The loyalists say that when Yediyurappa flew to New Delhi last week to meet Shah and Party President JP Nadda, no other important leader from Karnataka was present. They said the rival group’s failed attempt to get Halappa Achar and chief whip Sunil Kumar into the cabinet shows its poor influence over the central leadership.
It is said that Yediyurappa and his loyalists have set up a team to cross-check misinformation being carried against the Chief Minister to the central leadership. This meant that many tales and truths carried to the central leadership have been exposed, and Yediyurappa’s position has been strengthened.
Shah is due to arrive on Saturday, and leave on Sunday. He will participate in a few public functions, like the inaugural of Rapid Response Vehicles in Bengaluru and a road show in Belagavi. H Vishwanath, who moved from the JDS to the BJP, but lost out on a berth, said he has sought time with Amit Shah. CM’s political secretary MP Renukacharya, who is also unhappy, had rushed to Delhi to stake claim to a ministry.