Bengaluru: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister in Karnataka, K.S. Eshwarappa, said on Tuesday that the ruling BJP had to face several embarrassing moments after 17 disqualified MLAs from Congress and the Janata Dal (S) joined the saffron party in 2019.
Eshwarappa’s statement assumes significance ahead of BJP’s Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh’s three-day visit to the state starting Wednesday.
After taking stock of the development works in Uttara Kannada district, Eshwarappa told reporters that it is true that the ruling BJP had to face a few problems, which would not have arised had the people given a full mandate to the party.
“It is quite unfortunate that the ruling BJP had won 105 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls, falling short of the simple majority of 113 by eight seats, which forced the party to make legislators from other parties resign and join us. This had certainly caused heartburn among the existing lot,” he said.
He asserted that the ruling party often has to spend most of its energy in countering the statements made by the party members.
“Some of them go to Delhi for some other work but they try to give a twist to their visits. Some are carrying out signature campaigns and few of them have come out in the open and stated that this is a government of three parties. Such things would not have happened had the people given a full mandate to us,” he said.
Answering a question, he asserted that he never went against the party discipline structure even as he wrote a letter against the style of functioning of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to the Governor.
“There was no grouse in my letter to the Governor. It was only an attempt to seek advice from an elderly person, who had handled the finance ministry for more than 12 years in Gujarat. Just read my letter once again,” he said.
Playing down Eshwarappa’s statements, Yediyurappa told reporters that there was no disgruntlement within the party as such, but there will always be one or two persons who will be upset.
“These minor hiccups will be sorted out after Singh’s arrival. This time everyone will be given an opportunity to speak to him and he will sort out any problems that may crop up,” he said in response to a question.
On June 11, BJP national General Secretary Singh had ruled out replacing Yediyurappa as the CM of the southern state.
Buoyed by this, Yediyurappa had on JUne 12 asserted that he will continue to be the Chief Minister for the next two years and work for the development of the state.
