The BJP’s decision to field Sharanu Salagar, a Lingayat leader from Kalaburagi, in the Basavakalyan by-election, ignoring the 16 local aspirants, has triggered dissent within the party ranks.
As the news of Mr. Salagar’s selection was out late on Thursday, party workers held flash protests in Basavakalyan town condemning the decision. They burnt tyres at Haralayya Circle, Tripuranta Circle and Ambedkar Circle.
The dissent and disappointment took gathered momentum on Friday with more party leaders and cadres joining the agitations and airing their discontentment. An emergency meeting of party workers and leaders was held at Basaveshwara Temple where the party workers took oath not to vote for BJP in the by-election. “I am a patriot and I have self-respect. I am a fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yet, I take oath in the name of Basavanna and my family’s deity not to vote for BJP in this by-election,” they said. A few leaders from Swabhimani Balaga, a group of local youth, strongly suggested fielding any one of the BJP ticket aspirants as an Independent candidate.
The BJP activists also decided to take up an intense house-to-house campaign in the constituency appealing the voters not to vote for Mr. Salagar.
The party workers raised slogans against Bhagwanth Khuba, the Lok Sabha member from Bidar, holding him responsible for denial of ticket to local aspirants and giving it to an ‘outsider’. A few of them even burnt his image printed on a banner. They alleged that Mr. Khuba had ensured the party ticket to Mr. Salagar in return for a huge amount of money.
As many as 16 local leaders including a two-time former MLA Mallikarjun Khuba and others such as Suryakanth Nagamarapalli, Sanjay Patwari, Pradeep Watade, Gundu Reddy, Umesh Birabitte, Ravi Chandankere and Sudhir Kadadi were making serious attempts to get the ticket.
Mr. Mallikarjun Khuba told The Hindu he would take an appropriate decision after consulting the party workers and people of Basavakalyan on Tuesday.
“BJP claims to be a party of ideology and principles. But, its leaders took a wrong decision. There are 2.5 lakh voters and 25,000 party workers in the constituency. There are many leaders and cadres who have been sincerely working for the party for the last 30 years or more. There were 16 aspirants for the BJP ticket. We are surprised to see that the party leaders could not find an able candidate among them. A meeting of people and party workers would be held on March 30 and I will decide my future course of action after taking suggestions from the stakeholders in the meeting,” Mr. Khuba said.
Mr. Suryakanth Nagamarpalli, son of former Minister late Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, however, made it clear that he would neither contest the by-election as an Independent candidate nor quit the party, though he was disappointed by the party’s decision.
“I am pained by the party’s decision to prefer an outsider over me and many other local leaders. My father was the man behind the revival of B.S. Yediyurappa’s political career. We have been sincerely working for the party and the society for so many years. It is a sad thing that the party leadership did not recognise our work,” he said.
