Karnataka Janata Paksha president B.S. Yeddyurappa received one more jolt on Thursday with his close aide and Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani announcing his decision to remain in the Bharatiya Janata Party belying his hopes of wooing him to the KJP fold.
Interestingly, Mr. Nirani, who had earlier expressed his intentions to shift base from Bilagi to Jamkhandi, also announced that he would contest the ensuing Assembly elections from Bilagi only. He told mediapersons in Belgaum that he took such a decision following pressure from his followers who wanted him to contest from Bilagi on a BJP ticket.
Sources in the BJP said that the party had made it clear to Mr. Nirani during negotiations that it would not consider his request for changing the constituency. The decision by other leaders close to Mr. Nirani such as Ministers Umesh Katti, Basavaraj Bommai and V. Somanna to remain in the BJP is learnt to have made Mr. Nirani to change his earlier decision to join the KJP.
Somanna’s to stay
Meanwhile, Mr. Somanna, who had earlier informed the BJP that he would remain in its fold, made a formal announcement in this regard in Bangalore on Thursday. It is being said that these two leaders made such public statements on Thursday as part of formalities as the BJP is set to release its first list of candidates on Friday.
The eve of the release of list of candidates by the BJP also saw desertions by some of its fence-sitting MLAs who got indications that their names were unlikely to figure in the party’s list.
S.V. Ramachandra (Jagalur) and K. Madal Virupaksha (Chennagiri) are believed to have submitted their resignations to the Assembly in addition to severing links with the BJP. Similarly, Mr. Raju Gowda who had recently quit as Minister to join the Congress severed links with the BJP and announced that he would join the Janata Dal (Secular) upset over the delay by the Congress leadership to take a call on his inclusion into the party. Lingsugur MLA Manappa Vajjal had submitted resignation to BJP on Wednesday.
MLCs quit
In addition to this, BJP MLCs Mohan Limbekayi and Shivaraj Sajjan, who have associated themselves with the KJP, also quit on Thursday.
Trying to play down the episode of these resignations, BJP State general secretary Raghunathrao Malkapure termed them as “jumping horses” who were bound to shift political loyalties as they were not going to get ticket from the BJP to contest the Assembly polls.
He said the two rebel MLCs had quit following the possibility of they being disqualified as the BJP had filed a petition in this regard.
When asked if it was proper for the BJP to ridicule the party hoppers as “jumping horses” as most of them had been wooed by the BJP from other parties under “operation kamala”, he admitted that it was not a good move to include such party hoppers in BJP fold.
“But the party did not have any option at that time as there was a need to protect the government from instability,” he maintained.
