Supporters, opponents of Halady Srinivas Shetty slug it out; Yeddyurappa asks Shetty’s opponents to leave venue
The Parivartana Yatre led by former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had to taste dissidence in the Kundapur unit of Bharatiya Janata Party, during the public meeting held at the Nehru Maidan in Kundapur on Monday.
Halady Srinivas Shetty, a fourth-term MLA from Kundapur, has been planning to join the BJP after December. Mr. Shetty had a couple of days earlier made it clear that he would join the BJP after a couple of months as he could not do so being an Independent MLA. But he had said that he would attend the Parivartana Yatre in Kundapur.
Accordingly, Mr. Shetty attended the Yatre and was sitting in the audience. But, a group of BJP workers opposed to his joining the party, raised slogans against him. This led to reverse sloganeering from Mr. Shetty’s supporters, who greatly outnumbered those opposing him.
An agitated Mr. Yeddyurappa told those opposing Mr. Shetty to leave the venue and the party and that Mr. Shetty would get the BJP ticket for the next Assembly elections. Though this ensured some quietness, there was unease throughout the meeting.
Police steps in
After Mr. Yeddyurappa and other leaders left the venue, there was jostling, pushing and heckling between the supporters of Mr. Shetty and his opponents. The police finally came in and dispersed both the sides.
Sanjeev M. Patil, Superintendent of Police, told The Hindu that there was no ‘lathi charge’ at the meeting. The police personnel had only hit chairs with canes to disperse the crowd from the venue, he said.
Earlier, speaking at a press conference in Udupi on Monday morning, Mr. Yeddyurappa had made it clear that Mr. Shetty would be joining the BJP on the invitation of the party. “I had gone to his house and requested him to join the party. Any opposition to from anyone in Kundapur unit would not be tolerated. We will take disciplinary action if anyone opposes it,” he had said.
A popular leader, Mr. Shetty, who was three-term BJP MLA, had quit the party in December 2012, after being denied a ministerial berth. He had contested as independent candidate and not only won by the highest margin of 40,611 votes in Udupi district but also relegated the BJP to the third place in the Kundapur Assembly constituency during the 2013 Assembly elections. It was Mr. Shetty’s fourth consecutive victory from the constituency.
