BENGALURU: BJP circles were abuzz that the persons responsible for the party’s poor show in the Karnataka elections are National General Secretary (Org) B L Santhosh and Union minister Pralhad Joshi, but the question is: Who will be the fall guy?
Sources say that if there is to be any punishment, Santhosh may escape the axe, but the party may not hesitate to sacrifice Pralhad Joshi. Punishing Joshi may help stem Lingayat anger against the BJP, that is being seen as a party with a Brahmin-dominated leadership. Incidentally, both Santhosh and Joshi are Brahmins.
“It may be recalled that a video had gone viral on May 5, of Santhosh saying the party has to depend more on Hindutva than on Lingayat support. There was also Lingayat anger against the BJP after BS Yediyurappa was forced to step down, and former CM Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi were denied seats,” said a leader who has been with the party for more than three decades.
Sources said the party may prefer to make Joshi the scapegoat, in a bid to save Santhosh. The charge will be that he did not warn party leaders that dropping 75-plus names from the list will not yield good results, and other lapses in leadership, the source added.
While dropping legislators’ names, the party had used a yardstick to exclude those who were given tickets four or more times. The same yardstick will be used to drop Joshi, who has been a parliamentarian for four terms. BJP State General Secretary Ravi Kumar said, “There has been no discussion in any party forum about dropping Pralhad Joshi. We have introspected on the setback at meetings, and sent a report to the central leadership that it’s a collective failure. The issue of ticket distribution, Shettar and Savadi being denied tickets, reservation failure and other issues have already been discussed.’’
Sources said the issue of adjustment politics is also being spoken about by Santhosh’s followers. “The allegation against former CMs Yediyurappa and Bommai is adjustment politics. While Yediyurappa was blamed for rejecting the name of his son B Y Vijayendra to contest from Varuna, it was pointed out that as CM, Bommai never took up allegations of illegalities against Congress leaders to their logical end on the Arkavathy ‘re-do’ issue, solar power allotment issue or teacher and police recruitments.’’