Bengaluru: There are rumblings of discontent in the state BJP over recent appointments made to posts of district unit presidents and choice of candidates for the recent Legislative Council poll.
Many of former Chief Minister, B S Yeddyurappa’s rivals in the party, who were unhappy with his returning to take charge of the BJP’s affairs in the state, are finding some of his recent decisions hard to digest.
A section of the party’s core committee leaders and a few second rung leaders claim he has ignored deserving party workers and accommodated former KJP men and supporters of former minister, Shobha Karandlaje, senior leader, Ananth Kumar and other top leaders in many of the district unit positions. His decision to field his diehard supporter, Lehar Sing,h as a second candidate in the Legislative Council polls, has upset many as well.
One disgruntled leader even approached the RSS to intervene in the matter, but was reportedly told it could not interfere in party matters. “In the past Yeddyurappa would not listen to anyone and angered many seniors in the party as a result. But now he is trying to placate these senior leaders by accommodating their supporters. In the process, however, he has sidelined many deserving candidates,” say party insiders.
While the Lingayat strongman did little for his supporters in the KJP after returning to the BJP on January 10, 2014, he is now seeing to it that they are given positions of importance in the party, much to the anger of the old timers.
For instance, while some of the core committee members managed to field Mr V.Somanna for the Legislative Council poll against his wishes, Mr. Yeddurappa countered this with appointing his diehard supporter, professor K.R. Mallikarjunappa, who was with him in the KJP , as district president in Chamarajanagar.
His other supporter, S. Rudregowda is now heading the BJP's Shivamogga unit and a former KJP leader, G.B. Jyothi Ganesh has been made Tumakuru district president.
Diehard supporters of former minister, Shobha Karandlaje, Sanjeev Matandhur and Mattaru Rathnakar Hegde are heading the party units in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district respectively, much to the anger of other workers , who feel they have been cheated out of these positions .
