‘Let’s face polls under collective leadership’

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

The BJP’s Chinthan Shivir held in the outskirts of the city, has resolved to fight the 2023 Assembly polls under a collective leadership and also decided that no leader should make negative statements about the incumbent government before the media.

At the same time, leaders must not become complacent and sit back doing anything for retaining power in the State by leaving everything to the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit said. The meeting attended, by BJP National General Secretary & Incharge of Karnataka Affairs Arun Singh, had a free-wheeling discussion with around 50 members including three former CMs, B.S.Yediyurappa, D.V.Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar, besides State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel and members of the Core Committee present.

According to highly placed sources, Singh was equipped with the survey reports done by some agencies on the performance of the present government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai; people’s expectations; performance of 120 MLAs; plus and minus points of the ministers; pulse of the people and their opinion on governance and more importantly, internal bickering among Bengaluru City ministers (read Housing Minister V.Somanna vs Revenue Minister R.Ashok).

A few members opined that the phase of implementation of programmes announced in the State budget 2022-23 must be speeded up and the Bommai government must focus especially on Bengaluru Urban and Rural which together have 27 Assembly constituencies.

The image of the incumbent government has been dented due to the multi-crore Police Sub-Inspector scandal in which several BJP workers were found involved. Home Minister Araga Jnanendra has not been able to handle the home portfolio and that must be transferred to another able person keeping in view the coming Assembly polls.

The Congress Party is raking up this issue every now and then to paint the Bommai government as corrupt, the leaders said. A few members opined that except for one or two leaders, the BJP lacked leaders who could give fitting replies to Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar on controversial issues.

The CM has to defend his government alone as he is not getting enough support from senior leaders who are more worried about the coming Assembly polls. The ministers are unable to reply to queries posed by Congress leaders which shows their lack of preparedness in taking on the opposition. The BJP must take advantage of the internal squabbles in the Congress Party over the 75th birthday celebrations of Siddaramaiah and tell people about the manner in which Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are fighting even before the Congress can come to power in the State.

Unfortunately, most ministers do not open their mouths to explain the performance of their respective departments, let alone the work of the Bommai Government in the last seven months. As for BJP MLAs, they complained to the CM about the non-availability of ministers to address the issues pertaining to their constituencies.

If this attitude continues, it would be very difficult for legislators to face the people in the next Assembly election, sources added. The sources pointed out that the issue of delay in the Cabinet rejig came up for discussion. Senior party members wanted the high command to clarify if there would be a cabinet expansion or reshuffle at all instead of making false promises.

The BJP lawmakers have crossed the limit of patience and it is not advisable to test them for more time as it may boomerang on the party, the members felt. The meeting resolved to get done two to three more surveys in the next few months to gauge the public mood and then devise a proper strategy to win the State Assembly polls. Top leaders are expected to reach the state in advance to conduct a pre-poll campaign and build the tempo for the party in the next 8-10 months.