Bengaluru: With less than a year to go for elections to the Legislative Assembly, leaders of the ruling Congress are offering a helping hand to detractors of Lingayat strongman and state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa in several districts as part of an effort to entice them to jump the ship before the polls.
The architect of this plan to weaken the state unit of BJP, Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, has reportedly instructed local leaders to make the most out of discontent within the BJP because of the style of functioning of Mr Yeddyurappa, and to keep dissidents in good humour.
A senior BJP leader belonging to Tumakuru district told Deccan Chronicle: “Members of gram panchayat, taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat, who are critics of Mr Yeddyurappa, are tilting towards Congress because the state government has offered them a helping hand by approving projects in their wards. Besides, local Congress leaders are maintaining cordial relations with these second rung leaders of our party. The long-term plan is to woo them into the ruling party fold. An example of this tacit understanding is visible in our district unit where we received a jolt. We have brought it to the notice of state leadership as our party members are being soft in their stand against the ruling party, but the no corrective measures have been taken so far.”
The leader said the ruling party was gradually extending this strategy across the state to win over second rung leaders. The upshot: a tacit understanding between local leaders of Congress and BJP was evident in Chamarajnagar, Mysuru, Udupi and Haveri districts.
It was such an understanding which resulted in the defeat of BJP candidates in recent Assembly bypolls in Nanjangud and Gundlupet. “Our party candidates were trounced in the bypolls because of non-cooperation of party workers at the local level,” the leader added.
Another BJP leader belonging to Haveri district said in the absence of coordination committee meetings at the district level, the BJP has a tough task ahead while sorting out differences between party workers and those of Mr Yeddyurappa's erstwhile KJP.
Sources in the party said the ruling party, however, had managed to retain its workers who were set to join the BJP along with former Member of Parliament, K Jayapra kash Hegde. When the leader defected to BJP, his supporters and Congress workers could not be accommodated in the district and local units of BJP. All of them, however, had agreed to remain in the Congress.
