Will Cong-JD(S) MLAs who backed BSY quit?

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Are the 17 legislators from Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) who were responsible for the installation of a BJP government headed by B.S.Yediyurappa in 2019, planning to quit the saffron party before the 2023 Assembly polls?

This doubt was expressed by none other than Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S.Eshwarappa who felt the ‘outsiders’ (Congress and JDS legislators) have not adjusted to the BJP culture yet adding that it looks like some of them have joined the party to do ‘business’. “ A few of them have shown their true colours by defeating our candidates in the Council elections. Many who cannot adjust with our principles and ideology are going to leave the party”.

Eshwarappa’s statement assumes significance in the wake of the shocking defeat of the BJP’s Council candidate in Belagavi against Independent, Lakhan Jarkiholi, brother of former minister and Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi. The ‘game’ played by Ramesh to ensure his brother’s victory has been exposed and this has angered original BJP leaders who have built the party brick by brick in Karnataka.

Saffron leaders are more upset after they saw Ramesh leaving Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in a car with his arch-rival Belagavi MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and Khanapur Congress MLA Anjali Nimbalkar on Thursday.

Already, BJP MLC C.P. Yogeshwar who was one of those responsible for making Yediyurappa CM, is waiting for an opportune time to jump ship. According to newly-elected Congress MLC, S.Ravi, Yogeshwar helped in the transfer of BJP votes to the Grand Old Party. Of late, Yogeshwar has totally distanced himself from the BJP indicating his intentions of returning to the Congress. He has also softened his stance vis-a-vis the ‘Kanakapura Brothers’ (D.K. Shivakumar and D.K.Suresh) as he is upset after he was dropped from the ministry during the second round of Cabinet expansion.

Original BJP leaders are aware that all those who had joined the saffron party in 2019, would leave once their poll tickets are assured by the Congress high command before the 2023 polls.