Ministers at war: CM takes his woes to BJP top brass

High command asks Somanna, Ashok, Ashwath to stop mudslinging, focus on coming elections

Shyam Sundar Vattam I NT

Bengaluru: The BJP high command is learnt to have decided to take to task some of the ministers who are not showing any interest in joining hands with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to brighten the chances of the saffron party’s return to power in the State.

The CM is said to have complained to BJP National President J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the passive attitude adopted by some of the ministers due to the differences of opinion among themselves. Despite convincing them to bury the hatchet as the Assembly polls are due to be held in the next four to five months, these ministers have failed to fall in line.

This has been brought to the notice of Nadda and Shah who have been requesed to summon them and issue a stern warning to them to mend their ways or face the consequences. A similar situation had prevailed in the Congress just a few months ago before going to the Assembly polls in the year 2018.

The CM is learnt to have explained them how their differences of opinion have impacted the party and had requested them to set aside their differences and fully focus on the coming election. As it failed to make any impact, Bommai has gone to the top brass so that he is not blamed if the results are not upto expectations.

Sources told News Trail that this problem mainly prevails in Bengaluru Rural & Urban areas following the competition among ministers over the prized portfolio of Bengaluru City Development which involves projects running into several crores of rupees.

For this reason, the CM has kept this portfolio with himself. A few months ago, there was a move to give this portfolio to Revenue Minister R.Ashok but it opened the floodgates of criticism within the party with V.Somanna and Dr C.N.Ashwath Narayana opposing it.

The high command intervened and asked Bommai to keep the portfolio with himself. Since then the chemistry among Somanna, Ashok and Dr Ashwath Narayana is not good. The high command has reportedly asked them to pull up their socks and focus on the election instead of indulging in mudslinging.