BJP party workers’ meetings, held back to back in Vijayapura and Bagalkot on Monday, were disrupted due to the loud arguments between factions led by various leaders, exposing differences within the State unit of the party after the Assembly poll debacle.
BJP is organising district-level party workers’ meetings in which Ministers and State-level party office bearers are meant to speak about the achievements of the nine-year rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The differences came to the fore in Monday’s two such meetings in North Karnataka.
Supporters fight
In Vijayapura, the meeting saw heated exchanges between supporters of former Minister Murugesh Nirani and MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal. Ruckus was created when former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was called to inaugurate the programme. Some supporters of Mr. Yatnal rushed to the podium and stopped the inauguration of the meeting till their leader arrived at the venue. They said that he was the only BJP MLA from Vijayapura and there was no meaning in starting the event without him.
They alleged that some BJP leaders had “betrayed” Mr. Yatnal and that such people needed to be disciplined by the party. “But instead, they were being felicitated while Mr. Yatnal was being sidelined.”
Some raised slogans against leaders like Mr. Murugesh Nirani and Hanumanth Nirani, MLC, Arun Shahapur former MLC and Ramesh Jigajinagi, MP.
This upset Mr. Jigajinagi, former MLAs Aminappagouda S. Patil Nadahalli, and the Nirani brothers who walked out of the hall. Leaders like Mr. Bommai, Anna Saheb Jolle, MP, and his wife and MLA Shashikala Jolle, Abhay Patil, MLA, former MLA Ramesh Bhusnur, and others who were on the stage, did not try to stop them.
‘Defeated by own leaders’
Mr. Yatnal who arrived late, addressed the gathering and said that BJP was defeated by some of its own leaders and not others.
“I want to tell such traitors to get their act right. You are setting fire to your own house, but you do not realise it. You have tried to defeat your own party candidates by supplying money to opposition party candidates. Some of you supplied money to my own opponents in Vijayapura. But the people of this city had faith in me and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I was elected,’‘ he said.
“A BJP leader from Bilgi sent my opponents in Vijayapura to defeat me. But he got defeated himself,’‘ he said, without naming Mr. Nirani.
Outside the venue, Mr. Nirani said that it was Mr. Yatnal who had betrayed the party and not him. “Mr. Yatnal is a big supporter of a Congress Minister from Vijayapura. He plots conspiracies against BJP leaders, in connivance with some local Congress leaders. He should stop lecturing others about party loyalty,’‘ he said.
He further said that Mr. Yatnal has not only lost two elections in the past but also caused the defeat of party leaders. “He has not only worked against his BJP colleagues but also celebrated by distributing sweets when they lost,” Mr. Nirani alleged.
“Mr. Yatnal was the reason why Mr. Karjol’s son lost in 2018,” he said. To a query, Mr. Nirani said that Mr. Yatnal should support his allegation against him with evidence.
“Mr. Yatnal calls himself a Hindu Tiger. But his commitment to Hindutva is not absolute. He has changed parties in the past. When he was in the JDS, he has gone and offered Namaz in mosques,” said Mr. Nirani.
Earlier in the day, in Bagalkot, the fight between members of factions led by BJP leaders Veeranna Charantimath and P.H. Pujar disrupted the meeting by nearly an hour. Order was restored after the police escorted out of the meeting Shekhar Mane, a follower of Mr. Pujar, on the appeal by Mr. Charantimath.
However, Mr. Charantimath said he would not be satisfied till Dr. Mane was thrown out of the party. “I have a list of all party leaders who are eating muck and indulging in anti-party activities,” he said.
In Bagalkot, Mr. Yatnal said that former Minister Govind Karjol would have won if he had heeded his advice of changing the constituency. He went on to say, “We have not lost everything. We have a support base of dedicated party workers and visionary leaders like Mr. Modi. Let us work hard to see that we will win the Lok Sabha polls.”
Mr. Nirani too asked party workers not to lose hope. “We still have 64 MLAs and 25 MPs in Karnataka. To err is human. I may have made a mistake, you may have made mistakes. Let us correct them and work towards the Lok Sabha polls,’‘ Mr. Nirani said.
“However, we should stop finding fault with each other. I am warning my opponents from this stage. If anyone speaks ill of me or insults me, I want to tell them that they will face dire consequences,” he added, in a veiled warning to Mr. Yatnal.
What Eshwarappa said
It may be recalled here that former Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa on Monday at Hubballi had blamed the Congress leaders, who shifted to the BJP, as the reason for the unwelcome developments in the party. Addressing presspersons along with Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi in Hubballi, Mr. Eshwarappa said that the BJP had “suffered for welcoming Congress leaders into the party.”
