Even as the 17 disqualified MLAs including 14 from Congress and 3 from the JD(S) heaved a sigh of relief after the Supreme Court allowed them to contest the assembly bypolls in Karnataka, some sections of the BJP state unit are unhappy about their induction into the party.
All the 17 disqualified MLAs who helped topple the H D Kumaraswamy led JD(S)-Congress coalition government will join the saffron party in Bengaluru at an event at 10 am on Thursday. The core committee of the Karnataka unit of BJP which met on Wednesday, said that based on the desire expressed by the disqualified MLAs they have decided to induct all of them into the party fold.
Senior BJP leader Arvind Limbavalli briefing media after the core committee meeting said they have, however, not taken a final decision on ticket distribution. Fifteen of the 17 seats go to polls on December 5 and the nomination process has already commenced on Monday with November 21 being the last day for filing nominations.
However several BJP leaders have expressed unhappiness at the induction of the ‘defectors.’ Sharath Bache Gowda, son of B N Bache Gowda, who is the BJP Lok Sabha member from Chikballapura, said that if M T B Nagaraj one of the disqualified MLAs is given the BJP ticket, he will contest as an independent from Hoskote constitutency.
In the May 2018 polls Sharath contesting on a BJP ticket had narrowly lost to Nagaraj who had then contested on a Congress ticket. Immediately after Sharath’s public declaration of his intention to contest as an independent JD(S) leader and former CM H D Kumaraswamy expressed his party’s support to him.
Similarly in Hirekerur, another BJP leader U G Bankar has threatened to go against the party if B C Patil, another of the disqualified MLA against whom he had lost in the previous election, is given a ticket. In Kagawad constituency, the BJP candidate in the May 2018 assembly polls Raju Kage has already quit the primary membership of BJP and is all set to contest as a Congress candidate. “This is not the BJP of the old. They have done injustice to me. How can they induct and reward (Srimanth Balashaeb Patil) him? I am joining Congress tomorrow and will file my nomination papers on November 18,” he told HT.
In Athani constitutency, the BJP again faces a dilemma. In the 2018 assembly polls, current Deputy CM Lakshman Sangappa Savadi had contested and lost against Mahesh Kumtalli who is one of the disqualified MLAs now crossing over to the saffron fold. Savadi needs to become a member of either house of the state within the next three months in order to continue as the Deputy CM. He is keen to contest again as is Kumtalli. Savadi did not respond to HT’s request for comments.
Arvind Limbavalli though claimed that the issue would be sorted out amicably and the party’s ‘official’ candidates would be announced after another meeting of the core comittte on Thursday. Another Deputy CM Ashwath Narayan also claimed that there was no dissidence in the party and everything would be sorted out shortly.
But political observers are not surprised by the dissent in the BJP.
“This was to be expected. In all the constituencies BJP already had a presence and candidates who had been defeated by the disqualified MLAs. There would be rebellion in some constituencies and the party would have to find ways of rewarding some of the dissatisfied leaders in other ways,” said senior political analyst Mahadev Prasad.
Source: HindustanTimes