MYSURU: When the dust is yet to settle down after the BJP-JDS Mysuru Chalo Yatra against the MUDA scam, BJP leaders, led by Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, are planning another yatra, this time against “rampant corruption” in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation Ltd.
Former MP Prathap Simha said here on Wednesday that the BJP leaders, who met in Belagavi, decided to launch a serious agitation that would worry Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Simha said he attended the meeting following an invite from Yatnal.
“The padayatra will be taken out with the consent of the party high command. We will invite BJP state president BY Vijayendra too,” he added. On his meeting with the accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, he said, “There is nothing wrong with it. If it is wrong, then why are Congressmen falling at the feet of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who are accused in the National Herald case?” On Health Minister Dinesh Gundurao criticising him for meeting the accused, he said leadership qualities and talent of the father do not always pass on to their children, including in the case of Gundurao.
Simha, a former Lok Sabha member, said party leaders have advised him to remain in the state and to raise his voice against injustice. Claiming that he is senior to many leaders in the party, he said his father is from the RSS.
Simha said he has managed to influence the youth and bring young blood into the party, when senior leaders like BS Yediyurappa were in the background. “I will not knock on the doors of others, nor please them. I was given a ticket by the RSS and have earned fame beyond the constituency and caste, like Yatnal,” he claimed.