Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 19: The national leadership of BJP is understood to have advised its Karnataka state unit president, Yeddyurappa, to take steps to win over confidence of all the party leaders, maintain good rapport with them, and not allow any disagreements to crop up on account of his way of handling things. The party is pleased with the public response to its 'Parivartana Yatra' everywhere and does not want to let go of the momentum built out of this programme, which it feels, is an indicator of things to come during the assembly election.

The party high command has told Yeddyurappa not to give undue weightage to opinions or advices of any particular leader, give equal importance to everyone, and lay stress on collective leadership. This advice is given by the party's think-tank on the basis of positive inputs received about the Yatra from union minister for human resources development, Prakash Javadekar, and railway minister, Piyush Goyal, who have been monitoring the development in the state and the response for the Yatra on a continuous basis. These two leaders are in-charge of state affairs of BJP in Karnataka.

Going by the number of people who are attending the rallies addressed by Yeddyurappa, BJP leaders have reasons to hope that the party can wrest power in the state from Congress in assembly election. However, they are worried about internal bickering and differences Yeddyurappa has with some of the established leaders of the party. Towards ensuring that the differences do not snowball into disturbing fissures within the party, the leadership has advised the state leaders to meet once every two weeks to assess the success of Parivartana Yatra. Javadekar and Goyal have been asked to attend these meetings so that they can keep close track of developments within the party.

In the past, there had been complaints from state party leaders about autocratic and undemocratic style of functioning owned by Yeddyurappa and too much importance attached by him to the leaders of erstwhile Karnataka Janata Party. Thereafter, the national leaders of BJP had advised state leadership to desist from approaching them with complaints frequently. At the Parivartana Yatra rallies, the party has been able to put up united show, which has made the central leaders happy. The leaders feel that the differences have been addressed and are hopeful that the issues get resolved in core committee meetings without spilling into the public domain.

The party leadership has decided to choose candidates for next assembly election on the basis of internal survey reports. This has affectively stymied the chances of strong state leaders of having decisive say in selection of candidates. Selection of candidates was one of the major issues that had given rise to heartburn among the state leaders.

It is learnt that every senior leader of the party has been given specific tasks to be attended at each of the rallies. Therefore, apparently, as of now, there have not been signs of clash of authority and infighting between factions, it is learnt.