Yediyurappa has cited party leader Amit Shah’s support for the rebels to justify the decision to field them and expressed unhappiness over opposition within the party on the issue.
A leaked audio and video clip of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s speech, at a recent core committee meeting of the BJP’s state unit, has indicated growing tensions within the party over the issue of fielding Congress and JD(S) rebels as candidates for the bypolls to 15 Assembly constituencies on December 5.
Yediyurappa has cited party leader Amit Shah’s support for the rebels to justify the decision to field them and expressed unhappiness over opposition within the party on the issue.
Several leaders, including a rival group allied with the party’s central leadership and BJP organising secretary B L Santhosh, are reported to be opposing the decision to field the rebels as BJP candidates.
Tough road ahead for Karnataka BJP
The leaked clip may reunite the Congress and JD(S) camps which have been in disarray since the fall of the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government. The BJP needs to win at least half of the seats in the December 5 bypolls to remain in power, and with increasing internal dissensions over several issues, BSY will have to tread cautiously if the party wants to avoid the prospect of fresh polls.
The clip from a core committee meeting of the BJP’s state unit held in Hubbali this week has also indicated for the first time that the rebellion of 17 Congress and JD(S) rebels in July was officially orchestrated by the BJP. Yediyurappa has not denied the clip so far. The clip came as the Yediyurappa government marked 100 days in office on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress has said that it will bring the clip to the notice of the Supreme Court to emphasise that the rebels did not quit on their own but were lured by the BJP to defect.
Siddaramaiah, leader of Congress in the Assembly, along with other party leaders, met Governor Vajubhai Vala and sought dismissal of the Yediyurappa government for triggering the defections in July. “Amit Shah himself monitored the efforts to keep the rebels in Mumbai for two-and-a-half months, Yediyurappa has stated. They proceeded to defeat the 10th Schedule of the Constitution which is the anti defection law,” Siddaramaiah said. “It is unconstitutional and undemocratic. He is the chief minister and Shah is the home minister and they have trampled over democratic norms. It is a murder of democracy. We met the Governor and asked him to dismiss the Yediyurappa government. We have also sought the resignation of Amit Shah as minister,” the Congress leader said.
A group of 17 MLAs of the Congress and JD(S) quit as legislators in July to topple the Congress-JD(S) government and facilitate the formation of a Yediyurappa-led BJP government with a narrow majority of five seats. The rebels who resigned were disqualified by the Speaker and are now awaiting a Supreme Court order which will decide whether they are eligible to contest the bypolls. In the leaked clip, Yediyurappa can be heard saying, “The way people have spoken today, it does not seem like there is a desire to save the government. You know that the decision to obtain the support of these 17 MLAs was not a decision taken by Yediyurappa alone. The national president of the party (Amit Shah) himself supported the move and the rebels were kept in Mumbai for two-and-a-half months.”
“We would have been in opposition for three-and-a-half years but we have been brought to power by the rebels who resigned and approached the Supreme Court to seek acceptance of their resignations… ’’ he said in the clip. “I am hurt and I did not expect this from you… it is good the party president is present here… let the central leadership decide.” The Karnataka CM said the rebels were being made to look foolish for trusting the BJP and that the matter could not be discussed openly until now because it has been pending in the Supreme Court.
However, the BJP said the CM was quoted out of context. “Nobody knows in what context the CM had said it. He was quoted out of context,” BJP spokesperson Go Madhusudan said. Such statements will not stand in any court of law as evidence, the BJP leader said. JD(S) leader and former CM Kumaraswamy said the BJP as a party stood exposed by the clip as Yediyurappa himself has “revealed the truth.”
The Express Express..
