Yeddy criticism will hurt BJP, warns Vijayendra

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s son and Karnataka BJP’s vice president BY Vijayendra on Friday issued a cryptic warning to the saffron party leadership that speaking ill of his father would “hurt the party.” He made the statement before mediapersons on a visit to Vijayapura.

Although he seemed to be referring to Vijayapura MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal since the question was about the local MLA, he seemed to have meant the quote as a maxim to other state BJP bigwigs who had not been on good terms with Yediyurappa. The context of the quote was Yatnal launching verbal attacks against both Yediyurappa and his protégé Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, branding them both liars.

The Vijayapura MLA held that both leaders had gone back on their word on granting reservation to the Panchamasali community – a sect under Lingayats – under the 2A category, which would give them the ability to seek opportunities under a 15 per cent quota. However, on Thursday, Yatnal said that he had been asked by the BJP’s central leadership to not direct any more verbal attacks against Yediyurappa.

“The high command has asked me to not talk about Yediyurappa as he is a senior leader and I have accepted the terms. I will take a break now. I call upon the press not to ask me any questions on Yediyurappa from this moment forth,” he’d said. Vijayendra, who has been targeted by Yatnal in the past and even branded a “king pin” of the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam, said that he welcomed the Vijaypura MLA’s statement.

“In the interest of the party’s future, I think it’s a good development. Yatnal is a senior leader as well and I don’t want to comment on him. However, BS Yediyurappa has been CM four times. Even though he is not the CM today, all communities have accepted him as the loftiest leader and a fighter. If you attack Yediyurappa, it’ll hurt the party. Everybody needs to understand this and in the days to come and I’m sure they will,” Vijayendra said.

Party high command backs ex-CM

The saffron party’s high command intervention comes in the backdrop of Yediyurappa being marginalised within the Karnataka BJP.

Recently, the party’s national general secretary BL Santosh had called a meeting excluding Yediyurappa and issuing invites to Bommai and party state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, among other bigwigs instead.

The former chief minister, a mass leader, however, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the same week on the side-lines of the BJP’s national executive meeting. News reports suggest that Yediyurappa narrated the present quagmire the Karnataka BJP finds itself in and bluntly told the PM the party couldn’t win without him campaigning extensively.

Modi is said to have mollified the Lingayat leader and assured him that the BJP valued him as a senior leader, promising a major role in the party’s electoral campaign. Yediyurappa is angling for his son and his supporters to be assured of plum positions in the party in the future.