Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party may contend that it has hardly anything to do with the crisis in the coalition government but the dramatic happenings in the past few days prove otherwise.
For one, when independent MLAs H. Nagesh and R. Shankar withdrew support to the coalition government and reached HAL airport to leave for Mumbai where the rebel MLAs are holed up, Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar who tried to dissuade Mr Nagesh at the airport, had a confrontation with Mr Santhosh, the personal assistant of BJP State President B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was accompanying the Independents. Mr Santhosh's photos were circulated in no time in the media.
On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hand was proved once again when senior BJP leader R. Ashok accompanied Minister M.T.B. Nagaraj who took flight to Mumbai after giving indications a day earlier that he would return to the coalition.
It happened again on Monday night, when Shivajinagar Congress MLA Roshan Baig was about to board a chartered flight to Mumbai. It was Mr Santosh again who was reportedly present with him when the SIT team confronted Mr Baig and detained him in connection with the IMA investor scam.
He however quietly disappeared from the scene, sources said.
When the Siddaramaiah government was in power, Mr Santhosh was in the news for all the wrong reasons. He was accused of threatening and conspiring to kidnap Vinay, the PA of another senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, K.S. Eshwarappa.
The Congress party exploited this feud to the hilt to embarrass Mr Yeddyurappa just before the assembly elections in 2018. The CCB even issued a notice to Mr Yeddyurappa to grill him in connection with the Santhosh versus Vinay (Eshwarappa's PA) case. Somehow, the controversy died out later.
