The murder of Bharatiya Janata Party worker Praveen Nettaru has led to an unprecedented rebellion within the party’s Yuva Morcha and social media teams — hundreds of party functionaries from the two units have resigned across the State.
This may push the party, already in a damage control mode, and the State government into taking a more strident stand and hard Hindutva line.
BJP Yuva Morcha workers and office bearers have resigned in Chikkamagaluru, Karwar, Bagalkot, Koppal, Gadag, Davanagere, Haveri, Vijayanagara, Kalaburagi and Mysuru. Office bearers of BJP social media and IT cell in Vijayapura, Belagavi, have tendered their resignations, while in several other office bearers have also resigned. While many have said they were only resigning from their offices, some said they were “disillusioned” by the party and were quitting the party.
‘No security’
Most of those who have resigned have alleged “Hindu activists have no security” despite the State and Union governments both led by the BJP and that the party leaders were not standing by workers. BJP had made the alleged “communal murders” of 22 Hindutva activists during the previous regime a poll plank in 2018, but killing of two Hindutva workers (Harsha in Shivamogga and Praveen Nettaru in Dakshina Kannada) this year has angering party workers.
IT cell resignations
Sandeep Ramanagouda Patil Zalki, head of Vijayapura district BJP social media cell, said 72 members of the cell had resigned. “Our fight is against some weak leaders in the State BJP who are undeserving of our respect. Our resignations are to make the State government understand that State-level leaders have failed to ensure security,” he said. Bheemashankar Hugar, another member, said, “We want leaders like Yogi Adityanath to counter anti-national forces.”
Sandeep Haravinagandi, BJP Yuva Morcha president, Chikkamagaluru, probably led the first wave of en masse resignations where all office bearers of Yuva Morcha from the district resigned. Lok Sabha member and BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejaswi Surya is said to have contacted him — a purported audio clip of the conversation has gone viral — and appealed to them to withdraw their resignation. He tried to convince them that he would take a delegation of all district presidents to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to discuss the issue. Further, he was heard telling Mr. Sandeep that if Congress were in power, the party workers could have resorted to stone-pelting to get justice. However, Chikkamagaluru BJP Yuva Morcha office bearers haven’t withdrawn their resignations yet.
‘Not feeling safe’
A BJP Yuva Morcha office bearer Lohit from Mysuru apparently resigned citing he was “not feeling safe” and that his parents had advised him to disassociate from the party over safety concerns.
MLA and BJP leader Abhay Patil, from Belagavi said that he had never seen such outrage against the party in his 32 years of public life. “We have to convince our young supporters that we are not deviating from the party ideology,” Mr. Patil said.
‘Stand by party’
“Ours is a cadre-based party and we understand the emotions of our workers. We are talking to them and saying that now was the time to stand by the party organisation. The party has also communicated to the State government the need for stringent action not only against the killers of Praveen Nettaru, but also against the ecosystem that is carrying out these targeted killings,” said N. Ravi Kumar, General Secretary, BJP Karnataka.
