The Karnataka crisis — as were the previous ones — is the result of serious infighting within the BJP ranks, party leaders at various levels have admitted, even as the core committee met on Thursday evening to discuss the situation resulting from serious charges of corruption — and admitted nepotism — against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
For the moment, the party has decided to call the leaders of Karnataka's core committee, including the Chief Minister, to Delhi for urgent consultations. While some central party leaders felt that on the principles of probity, Mr. Yeddyurappa deserved to be sacked, there was also the consideration that the BJP, as a consequence, would have to lose its only government in the south. For, any replacement would not be able to keep the faction-ridden party and government intact for more than a couple of months, a senior leader disclosed.
The BJP is also worried about ousting a strong Lingayat leader as that action could have a long-term adverse impact on its support base.
“It is Yeddyurappa versus Eswarappa [State BJP president], Yeddyurappa versus Ananth Kumar [Bangalore South MP and general secretary], and Yeddyurappa against many of our MLAs who rebelled against him earlier,” a party source said.
“All the documents relating to land scams — involving giving of land to the Chief Minister's family members — have been leaked by our MLAs to the Opposition,” the source said.
So far, the party seems determined to save for Mr. Yeddyurappa his chief ministerial chair. The reason — if he were to be replaced, it would not take more than a couple of months for the government to collapse, and the BJP could not afford that, a leader explained.
At the same time, some senior leaders at the core committee meeting expressed the view that the BJP's campaign against corruption in the UPA government would ring hollow unless it took action against its own erring Chief Minister.
This is the third serious crisis being faced by the Yeddyurappa regime — the first was in November 2009 when the powerful Reddy brothers of Bellary almost brought his government down and retracted only after extracting several concessions related to their mining interests. The second time, the government was almost brought to its knees by rebel MLAs last month, and it was saved through a controversial trust vote win after the disqualification of the dissidents as well as some independents.
Now the government is facing serious allegations of corruption and nepotism that even the BJP leadership here is not defending openly, except suggesting that Mr. Yeddyurappa did only what other Chief Ministers before him had done.
Party leaders here have privately admitted — and this view was apparently expressed at the core committee meeting — that unless the BJP takes action against Mr. Yeddyurappa, its own campaign against corruption — against the scams in 2G spectrum allocation, the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing society in Mumbai — will become untenable.
Meanwhile, back-room efforts are being made to get Mr. Yeddyurappa to give up the land allotted to his son, daughter and other close family members. But that alone would not suffice, some core committee members felt.
The Congress has started a protest dharna in Parliament and charged the BJP with preaching probity at the Centre while allowing its Karnataka Chief Minister to “dance naked” to the tune of corruption and nepotism.
