Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 1: The first sparks of friction between top BJP leaders due to unilateral appointment to district committees of the party made by Yeddyurappa had gone off at the BJP state executive held at Kalaburagi sometime back. The next executive of the party is being held at Mysuru from May 6 onward. Will Eshwarappa and Yeddyurappa be able to amicably settle differences by then, is a million dollar question for which even these two warring leaders may not be knowing the answer.

The executive meet at Kalaburagi was held when tension between these two leaders was at the zenith. The leaders fought bitterly at the executive then. Although the next executive is being held after a gap of nearly four months, there is no change in ground reality. During these two executives, both the warring leaders were summoned to Delhi by party national president, Amit Shah, who told Yeddyurappa to convene meeting of a committee of four formed by him and affect change of district level office bearers as per the consensus there, whereas Eshwarappa, who was made president of backward classes morcha of the party, was asked to disassociate himself from Rayanna Brigade.

Both the leaders have not met these conditions, and continue to hurl accusations against each other. Eshwarappa has often been commenting about Yeddyurappa's loyalty to the party and raising the issue of formation of KJP by him. While Eshwarappa claims that he has the blessings of the top leaders for his link with the Brigade, Yeddyurappa thinks otherwise.

Some party functionaries are worried about the prospect of the Mysuru executive turning out to be another forum for these two leaders to flex their muscles. The executive is being held for two days on May and 7 a Rajendra Kalamandira Mysuru. In addition to Yeddyurappa, Muralidhar Rao and union ministers from Karnataka, MPs, office bearers of different morchas, party organizing general secretaries etc will be present at the executive. The face off between RSS activists working in BJP and Yeddyurappa has made the matters worse for the national leadership of the party.

Eshwarappa's anger has now been further fuelled by the unceremonial ouster of state vice presidents of the party, Nirmalkumar Surana and M B Bhanuprakash, both with RSS links. Eshwarappa, who took part in the house warming ceremony of party leader, M B Nandeesh, on Sunday at Tumakuru, returned to Shivamogga instead of going to Bengaluru and held parleys with leaders at the residence of Bhanuprakash at Mattur near Shivamooga. It is said that Eshwarappa's camp is unanimous in its opinion that it was wrong on the party of the party leadership to relieve the two from their posts before calling them for dialogue and hearing their grievances. Eshwarappa feels that genuine workers of the party who built the party in the state are being axed.

Interestingly, Bhanuprakash has convened a press conference at Shivamogga on Monday May 1.

In the meantime, Yeddyurappa said again that the national leadership of his party would be able to solve the issue in consultation with state in-charge of BJP affairs, Muralidhar Rao. Former minister and BJP state general secretary, C T Ravi, termed the placing of blame on national joint organizing secretary, Santosh, by the Yeddyurappa camp as unfortunate. He said Santosh has been working selflessly since he took over the work, and he has handled issues concerning the party organization with clarity and clear vision in the interests of the party and hence it was wrong to hold him accountable for things which are going wrong.

The meeting of the committee of four persons, Muralidhar Rao, Santosh, Arunkumar and Yeddyuyrappa that was formed by national leadership of the party to sort out the issues, which was expected to be held here on Sunday could not take place as Yeddyurappa, who came back from Delhi left for Shivamogga immediately after his arrival here.