Damage control: RSS tries to repair cracks in K'taka BJP

NT Correspondent Bengaluru: Parent body Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been trying to iron out differences within the Karnataka BJP. The six-hour-long meeting held in Bengaluru on Thursday was chaired by RSS man Mukund and BJP national general secretary BL Santosh. The meeting was attended by two rival camps. The first including BJP state president BY Vijayendra , Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly R Ashoka and Council LOP Chalavadi Narayanaswamy attended the meeting.

From the second camp BJP MLAs Basangouda Patil Yatnal and Ramesh Jarkiholi attended the meeting. Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje also attended the meeting. It is to be noted that Santosh is also in the anti-Vijayendra camp since he opposes the control the latter’s father BS Yediyurappa a Lingayat strongman exercises over the party. RSS leader Mukund preached intra-party unity in the lead up to the local body elections in the state but also allowed the party men to air their differences. Yatnal, also a vocal critic of Yediyurappa, claimed that Vijayendra was running the party unilaterally alongside others in his father’s camps while ignoring other “senior” leaders.

Yatnal singled out the appointment of party office bearers who were mostly Yediyurappa loyalists. Vijayendra defended himself, reasoning that all appointments were approved by the BJP high command. Mukund advised Yatnal to refrain from his diatribes against party leaders before the media.

Approval for march in question: Differences also arose over the second padayatra planned against the illegal money transfer scam in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Limited (KMVSTDCL). The march is being planned from Kudalasangama in Bagalkote district to Ballari district. It is seen as a response by the anti- Yediyurappa camp to the Bengaluru-Mysuru padayatra taken out by the saffron party to protest the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment scam.

Narayanaswamy claimed that approval had been granted but Ramesh Jarkiholi denied knowledge of the same. Yatnal and co also submitted a letter to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot demanding Congress MPs from Ballari (E Tukaram) and Raichur (G Kumar Naik) be dismissed because money from the Valmiki Corporation scam was allegedly used for campaigning in the constituencies. Leaders of the Yediyurappa camp were nowhere to be seen.