BJP high command unhappy at state leaders for inaction over CM’s ‘rice politics’

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: The BJP high command is upset with the State leaders for not rebutting the “controversy” created by the incumbent Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the sale of rice to Karnataka by the Food Corporation of India.

Highly placed sources told News Trail that the Delhi BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda are unhappy over the ‘lukewarm’ response of the state BJP leaders to allegations made by Siddaramaiah against the Government of India.

The leaders are even more disappointed with State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who should have given a fitting reply to Siddaramaiah’s accusations of the PM and launched a stir the very day against the ‘rice politics’ being played by Congress leaders.

Many people don’t know that the Union government gives five kg of rice free of cost to every BPL card holder every month under the Food Security Act 2013. But the Karnataka Congress leaders claim to give 10 kg of rice to every poor family in the State.

Hours after Siddaramaiah addressed the press conference to claim that the FCI has declined to sell the quantity of rice sought by the Congress government to be distributed among the BPL and Anthyodaya families, the state BJP leaders should have contacted the Union minister concerned to seek clarification and issue the clarification to Siddaramaiah’s allegations. All the state BJP leaders have failed to pull up their socks despite being rejected by the electorate for bad governance.

The Delhi leaders warned the State leaders to bury differences of opinion and work as a team keeping in view the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The leader admitted that there was no unity among the State leaders and everybody was busy in a blame game without understanding the need to set right the house and mount an attack on the Congress government.

When AICC General Secretary and In-Charge of Karnataka Affairs Randip Singh Surjewal chaired a meeting of BBMP officials in a posh hotel in Bengaluru, it was JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy who launched a frontal attack on the Congress leaders, followed by Vijayapura City MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal. Even in the sale of rice issue, Bommai should have spoken to the Union minister concerned to know the exact position and then given a reaction immediately.

But the former CM addressed a press conference the next day after every other leader commented. It looks like the BJP leaders have lost self-confidence after the defeat and are not ready to come out of their deep slumber. “Our leaders should have countered Siddaramaiah for politicising the rice issue and announced a sort of agitation against the Congress government for politicising every issue and blaming the PM. But they lost the opportunity