Internal differences dog BJP in Karnataka

Internal differences in the BJP’s Karnataka unit have come to fore during the process of selection of party candidates for the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Council, forcing the intervention of BJP’s national leadership to finalise the list of candidates.

After rival groups in BJP’s Karnataka unit, which shares power with the JD (S) in the coalition Government in the State, jostled for control of the party by backing the candidature of their supporters, a consensus on final list of candidates for the eleven seats of the Legislative Council eluded the party leadership.

Due to the disagreement between groups led by Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and former Federal Minister Ananthakumar, the BJP’s national leadership dispatched its general secretary Thavarchand Gehlot to Bangalore, who held a series of meetings with senior party leaders of the state unit.

With discontentment continuing to brew in the party, senior leaders including Yediyurappa, Ananthkumar and BJP’s Karnataka unit President Sadananda Gowda left for New Delhi to finalise the list before the last date for filing nominations expires on Monday.

Though the BJP national leaders announced the list of candidates including Vimla Gowda, Thontadarya and Janardhan Reddy in New Delhi on Sunday, several leaders of the BJP in Karnataka remained dissatisfied. BJP MP from North Karnataka Ramesh Jigajinagi openly expressed discontentment with the party’s list of candidates announced on Sunday.

The BJP faction headed by Ananthkumar had earlier brought to the notice of the senior party leaders in New Delhi how Yediyurappa had gained an upper hand by inducting nine of his supporters into the coalition Ministry and others as party’s state unit office bearers. Ananthkumar’s group apprehends that Yediyurappa will further consolidate his position if his say in the selection of candidates for the legislative council elections remains final.

The fresh discontentment in the party comes close on the heels of a similar rift in the party over the inclusion of a woman MLC into the Cabinet by Yediyurappa forced the postponement of the expansion of the Ministry.

Political observers opine that the party’s national leadership will have tread upon a tricky path to resolve the internal strife BJP’s Karnataka unit. For, Yediyurappa, who is considered instrumental in the party’s rise to power in Karnataka, also enjoys a close rapport with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who is also the national president of its coalition partner JD (S). A couple of months ago, he had threatened to walk out of the party with a considerable of chunk of MLAs and form an alternative Government with the JD (S).