Bengaluru: One-time loyalist Lehar Singh Siroya, BSY not on talking terms
Bengaluru: In a surprise of sorts, BJP MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, who had stood by party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa through thick and thin and played a crucial role in his return to the party fold after the ‘KJP fiasco,’ has reportedly distanced himself from Yeddyurappa.
Sources said the two are not even on talking terms for the past eight months. Yeddyurappa had depended a lot on Mr Singh to interact with central leaders. On many occasions Mr Singh had acted as emissary of Yeddyurappa to negotiate with the top brass.
On coming to know about the strained relationship between the two, detractors of Yeddyurappa have reportedly lured Mr Singh to their side with the MLC now considered close to BJP national organising joint secretary, B.L. Santhosh. Sources confided that Mr Singh has improved his relationship with Union Minister Ananth Kumar too.
Sources close to Yeddyurappa said the reason for the strained ties was the row pertaining to Santhosh, personal assistant of Yeddyurappa. When Santhosh hit the headlines for allegedly trying to kidnap Vinay, former PA of senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa, central leaders sought information on this from Mr Singh who was asked to prevail upon Yeddyurappa to keep away from controversies. This was communicated by Singh to Yeddyurappa, but the Lingayat strongman did not heed his advice. After this, Mr Singh has stopped going to Yeddyurappa's house, sources revealed.
When contacted Mr Singh said it was not the Santhosh incident which made him distance himself from Yeddyurappa, adding, "BJP leader and Council member V. Somanna yelled at me in the House a few months back while raising issues pertaining to Sangolli Rayanna Brigade. He accused me of complaining to Yeddyurappa that I was funding activities of the Eshwarappa headed Brigade. Hurt by this, I decided to keep away from controversies."
Sources claimed that other BJP leaders like D.S. Veeraiah, B.J. Puttaswamy and Aravind Limbavali too have distanced themselves from Yeddyurappa because of the growing clout of his PA Santhosh and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje.
