BJP needs to defuse crisis to be effective Opposition in Karnataka
A fter AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge sternly warned Congress leaders to “shut up and discharge the responsibilities assigned to them”, the public airing of views on internal issues has stopped. It could be a temporary period of calm before the leadership issues resurface. For now, Kharge’s diktat stopped the ruling party from drifting towards chaos and impacting the administration.
On the other hand, there seems to be no end to the BJP’s internal squabbles. Implosions continue to rock the party despite its leadership’s efforts to end it.
In Karnataka — which the BJP considers its gateway to the South — the party is facing a series of crises, with too many fissures. After its legislators Basangouda Patil Yatnal, Ramesh Jarkiholi and team raised a banner of revolt against the state leadership headed by BY Vijayendra, a public spat between close friends-turned-foes B Sriramulu and Gali Janardhan Reddy exposed the vulnerabilities within the party. The party’s top guns from Ballari went ballistic, making serious accusations against each other, prompting BJP national president JP Nadda’s attempts to assuage Ramulu.
All hell broke loose after the party’s state core committee meeting earlier this week. Former minister Sriramulu was upset with BJP General Secretary and state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agarwal’s comments about him not doing enough in the Sandur bypolls, which BJP lost. During the meeting, he is said to have countered Agarwal but was upset with the comments and more so, for state leaders not coming to his defence.
Sriramulu went public with the developments in a close-door meeting and even accused mining baron-turned-politician Reddy of conspiring against him and misleading the leadership. In return, Reddy dropped a bombshell, saying DyCM and KPCC president DK Shivakumar was trying to get Sriramulu into his party fold to snub PWD minister Satish Jarkiholi, a prominent ST leader in Congress. Shivakumar rubbished the allegations but admitted that before the assembly polls, he had invited Ramulu and around 50 other leaders to the party but the BJP leader had refused the invitation.
Sriramulu, a prominent ST community leader, and Reddy played a big role in strengthening the party in Ballari and neighbouring districts, especially after the 1999 Lok Sabha polls that witnessed a high-voltage contest between Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj. In the run-up to the 2018 assembly polls, Sriramulu was almost projected as BJP’s Deputy Chief Ministerial candidate.
In that election, he was fielded from two assembly segments — Molakalmuru in Chitradurga district and Badami in Bagalkote district. He won in Molakalmuru and put up a formidable fight against Congress leader and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Badami. Siddaramaiah won with a narrow margin of 1,696 votes. In 2023 and 2024, Sriramulu unsuccessfully contested Assembly and Lok Sabha seats from Ballari Rural and Ballari LS seats, respectively.
Despite his electoral setbacks, the BJP knows his strengths and cannot afford another setback if he deserts the party. That was probably why the party president got on a call with him hours after he went public with his displeasure. Even as the party defuses the current crisis, the big challenge before the central leadership would be to take all leaders and groups into confidence in the state president’s election.
Given the number of party’s elected representatives and prominent leaders who attended the recent meeting called by Vijayendra, a majority of the leaders seem to be backing his leadership, but the challenge will be to build a consensus to avoid elections as that could further widen the gaps.
Many believe the state president is likely to be elected unanimously as unsavory competition and internal rivalry could be detrimental to the party.
Some senior leaders in the party also expressed concern over Sriramulu going public about deliberations in the core committee, which is meant to frankly discuss all issues in the interest of the party. According to them, workers are concerned about the party’s image taking a beating and want its leaders to effectively counter the state government on various issues.
However, party leaders are optimistic. Senior BJP leader and MLC N Ravi Kumar says there will be problems in all the parties and they are confident of taking corrective measures to be a more effective and responsible opposition against the state government that has failed on all fronts.
Perhaps, like in Congress, a stern message and decisive action from the central leadership could put BJP Karnataka back on track to play the role of an effective opposition by taking up the issues that matter to the people.