Vijayapura: The political enmity between two senior Congress MLAs M. B. Patil and Yeshwantraigouda Patil is only getting escalated with both leaders making allegations against each other intensely.
The matter has not been confined merely to allegations alone but also has reached to a situation wherein each other have given ultimatum with regard to their political careers.
With statement of Yeshwantraigouda that he will not hesitate to finish off the political career of M. B. Patil from his Babaleshwar constituency, the latter tried to equate the former to street dogs that only bark during festival processions.
“I do not care about such street dogs who are generally seen barking during processions, which is later chased away by the police,” he remarked.
M. B. Patil said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath themselves campaigned against him, yet they could not ensure his defeat, then who is Yeshwantraigouda to finish off his political career, he asked.
He wondered from which party Yeshwantraigouda will campaign against him in Babaleshwar, from the Congress or the BJP.
Replying to the allegations of Yeshwantraigouda that it was M. B. Patil who took lead in demanding separate religious tag to Lingayat which the former believes caused heavy loss to the Congress in the last assembly polls, M. B. Patil claimed that he was not leading any such campaign.
He said that the demand for separate religion had come from Veerashaiva Mahasabha and not from the Lingayat leaders. It is only after that, the Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah decided to constitute a committee headed by retired judge Nagmohan Das.
‘The then Cabinet had also given unanimous approval for it. I personally had no role to play in that,” he said.
M.B. Patil claimed that the demand for separate Lingayat religion did not make any adverse impact on the party’s performance in the elections.
On the statement of Yeshwantraigouda Patil that M. B. Patil should not take credit for tank filling projects of Indi taluk, the latter vehemently claimed that it was he who conceptualised the projects and fought for its implementation even when he was not Water Resources Minister.
M.B. Patil said that he does not require a certificate from anybody when he had received appreciation from Siddeshwara seer himself on irrigation projects initiated by him during his tenure as Water Resources Minister.
He also claimed that it was he who ensured ticket to Yeshwantraigouda Patil in ZP elections and helped him become ZP President even when most of the local leaders were against Yeshwantraigouda Patil.
Replying to the allegations of Yeshwantraigouda Patil that M. B. Patil has made BLDE association as his family property which was started by Bantanal Seer, M. B. Patil said that it was his father late B. M. Patil who strived hard to bring the BLDE institution to the level of one of the top educational institutions of the country.
“At the time when BLDE had no money even to pay the salaries of the employees, my father who was Secretary then, leased out his own farms to arrange for the money. He even borrowed a loan on his personal guarantee for the construction of Engineering and Medical College,” he said.
