Bengaluru/Mysuru: BJP leader and former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa walked into a storm of anger and recrimination in Mysuru as some 500 party workers held violent protests against the BJP top brass, trashing the venue of the press conference, and shouting slogans against party president Amit Shah and Bengaluru MP Ananth Kumar for denying BSY's son B.S. Vijayendra, a ticket for the prestigious seat of Varuna.
Immediately after, at a joint news conference, ten BJP candidates from Mysuru district threatened to withdraw from the fray and keep away from the campaign if central leaders of BJP do not relent and continue to deny the ticket to Mr Vijayendra. "Why such humiliation when he was all set to submit his nomination papers?" they asked.
The BJP's Delhi based apparatchiks may have misread the situation in refusing Vijayendra a ticket, 22 days after he had begun campaigning in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's constituency where his son Yatindra is set to contest. While many within the party had said that the move to stop the son was meant to cut the Lingayat strongman to size, it may have boomeranged as it has now antagonized the Lingayat community which backed the BJP in poll after poll.
Insiders also said that the move to deny Vijayendra a seat was done in tandem with the move to stop Shobha Karandlaje from standing in Yeshwantpur as the duo would then control the BSY dispensation if voted to power.
With support swelling from BJP candidates of various other constituencies in South and North Karnataka, BSY camp is hoping that this show of strength may push Ashoka Road to reconsider its decision and ask Vijayendra to file his nomination papers from Varuna Assembly constituency in Mysuru district on Tuesday .
Sources close to BSY told DC that the BJP candidates of both Mysuru and Chamarajanagar are meeting him, as he is still at a private hotel in Mysuru, and requested him to impress upon the high command to announce Vijayendra as its official candidate in Varuna constituency. They also explained to him that Vijayendra contesting from Varuna would boost the morale of party workers in these two districts where BJP has been non-existent.
BSY however refused to comment on the matter beyond saying it was a party decision and he should campaign as a karyakarta across the district.
Sources close to BSY said he had his back to the wall as he could not openly support his son, who had surprisingly created a wave in favour of BJP, the first of its kind in the last 25 years. A number of Congress and JD(S) leaders of two districts had joined the BJP after seeing him as an emerging BJP leader in this region. There were no BJP aspirants to the seat that CM Siddaramaiah vacated in favour of his son Yatindra.
