BENGALURU: Former Union minister and Vijayapura BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who has challenged the BJP’s well-crafted image as a disciplined party frequently, has been served with a notice for making derogatory comments against ministers of his own party.
Apart from the notice, the party central leaders also personally called him and reprimanded him, party sources said. This has been one of many notices that the BJP disciplinary committee has served on him.
While addressing a protest rally by Panchamasalis recently, he had referred to a minister as a pimp without naming him. The issue dove further down after Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani hit back at Yatnal. Opposition parties, Congress and JDS, seized the opportunity to put the saffron party on the mat.
This is not the first time that Yatnal has put the party in a difficult position. He had created a stir when he claimed that a leader has to cough up Rs 2,500 crore to become a chief minister. The party disciplinary committee had issued a notice to him, but nothing came out of it, sources said.
Yatnal, though has stopped now, used to make derogatory statements against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa too. On Yatnal making caustic statements against his own party men and getting away with it, the sources said that he enjoys the blessings of a top central party leader. The party had taken note of his loose and defamatory remarks against own party leaders and had sought explanation from him.
BJP state president Nalinkumar Kateel too had asked the disciplinary committee to take disciplinary action against Yatnal. When Yediyurappa was chief minister, Yatnal had made caustic remarks against the senior leader and his family members.