Dismissing the possibility of his party’s internal clashes, those between Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Rural Development Minister K.S. Eshwarappa, adversely impacting the imminent byelections in the State, BJP State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel said that all was well in the party after he had talked to everyone who expressed a difference of opinion.
“BJP has a good internal democracy as well as a grievance redressal system. Its leaders, right from local unit to national president, are democratically elected. If the differences of opinion crop up, we have a system for addressing and resolving them. Congress neither has the internal democracy nor does it have the conflict resolution system. Just a kind of smoke is found in our party, but in Congress is already burning [with internal conflicts]. Siddaramaiah says that he would be the next Chief Minister and D.K. Shivakumar says he would be the next Chief Minister,” Mr. Kateel said. He also made it clear that there would be no need to form a coordination committee to avoid the public expression of dissent.
Mr. Kateel was addressing mediapersons in Kalaburagi on Saturday. He, along with Housing Minister V. Somanna and BJP SC Morcha State president Chaluvadi Narayanswamy, arrived on a special flight from Mangaluru to take part in the Basavakalyan byelection campaign. He was received by BJP SC Morcha State vice-president Ambaraya Ashtagi in Kalaburagi Airport.
CD scandal
To a question on the sex CD scandal involving former Minister and BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mr. Kateel said that his government had formed SIT [Special Investigation Team] to probe the case and he would not comment anything as the probe was under way. “We have complete faith in the SIT. Once the investigation is completed, action would be taken as per the law,” he said.
On the revolt being posed, the BJP leaders after they were denied the party ticket to contest the Basavakalyan byelection, Mr. Kateel said, “Just wait for two more days and see. Chanakya Somanna is the party in-charge for Basavakalyan byelection and he would come to Bengaluru after the victory of BJP candidate”.
