Though the schedule of BJP national president Amit Shah’s visit to Karnataka, to review preparations for the Lok Sabha elections, is yet to be finalised, the party’s State leadership appears to be jittery already.
This is because two of its recent decisions — of not fielding candidates for the elections to the Legislative Council and of abruptly staying away from the Bengaluru mayoral polls — are understood to have not gone down well with the central leadership.
These decisions had left the party cadre bewildered as they came amid speculation that the BJP would topple the ruling Janata Dal(S)-Congress coalition government by wooing MLAs from the combine. The decision not to field candidates in the Council polls, for which MLAs are voters, turned out to be an anti-climax. The manner in which the party stayed away from contesting also triggered speculation that it was not confident of keeping its flock together, let alone of wooing MLAs from the coalition.
This boosted the morale of the ruling combine as it put an end to political instability at least for the time being. But the political interpretation that the BJP lacked confidence in keeping its flock together embarrassed the party cadre.
Similar was the case with fielding candidates in the mayoral polls for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
The supporters of party State president B.S. Yeddyurappa and Bengaluru city leader R. Ashok — who, respectively, took the decisions on not fielding candidates for the Council and mayoral polls — have defended the moves by pointing out that the party lacked numerical strength to win both polls.
However, party insiders admit that these episodes and the tepid end to the alleged efforts to topple the government have the potential to affect the party’s morale ahead of the formal launch of preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The matter is expected to come up during the interactions with Mr. Shah when he visits, party sources note. Meanwhile, these decisions have given ammunition to Mr. Yeddyurappa’s detractors and left his supporters worried.
Rudresh from Ramanagaram?
The BJP appears to be struggling to find a strong candidate for the forthcoming byelection to Ramanagaram Assembly constituency, as its strong bet — former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar — is said to be reluctant to enter the fray.
The contest is likely to be a high-profile one in the wake of the possibility of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita entering the fray as JD(S) candidate. The saffron party is now considering its Ramanagaram district president Rudresh for the candidature. A formal announcement is yet to be made.
It is said that Mr. Yogeshwar, who was defeated in the neighbouring constituency of Channapatna by Mr. Kumaraswamy in the Assembly polls, was earlier keen to contest from Ramanagaram in order to send a message to his detractor Minister D.K. Shivakumar. However, he was now not showing much interest, especially after the failure of the alleged efforts of the BJP to form a government in the State.
In fact, JD(S) leaders had alleged that Mr. Yogeshwar was one of the BJP leaders trying to woo MLAs from the ruling combine.
