The efforts by a few BJP leaders to unsettle Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa amid the COVID-19 crisis has not gone down well with the party high command, which has chosen to ignore the issue for now.
“This is not the time for anyone to raise the issue of leadership change as people are suffering because of the pandemic,” a prominent Central party leader told The Hindu. Indicating that Central leaders would not spend time on it, he added, “There is no proposal before the high command to change the Chief Minister for now.”
Minister C.P. Yogeshwar and MLA Arvind Bellad were camping in New Delhi apparently to meet the party high command on the issue of leadership change, while a few more MLAs were expected to join them. However, they had to return to the State as the leaders did not show much interest in holding consultations on the issue.
Safe only for now?
However, it appears that Mr. Yediyurappa is safe only for now as there is no clarity on what will happen in the State once the pandemic crisis eases. Some State unit senior leaders feel there is a possibility of the Central leadership taking a fresh look at the issue after normalcy returns.
However, the Chief Minister’s camp argues that the high command may not venture into disturbing the status quo if recovery from COVID-19 is prolonged, as not much time will be left then for the next Assembly elections, due to be held in 2023.
Meanwhile, a section of party old-timers, upset with Mr. Yediyurappa’s style of functioning, appears to be persistent with the demand for convening a legislature party meeting in the presence of the party’s Central observers.
Speculation is rife that they are trying to collect signatures of like-minded legislators and forward the petition to the party high command in three or four days. Their contention is that the Mr. Yediyurappa-led government has not been handing the COVID-19 situation well and there is interference in administration by Mr. Yediyurappa’s son Vijayendra. They had also flagged the issue of the JSW land sale, which the government put on hold on Thursday.
They have underlined the need to direct the Yediyurappa government to handle the pandemic efficiently. However, they have not set any time frame for holding the meeting.
CM, Yogeshwar exchange barbs
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Minister C.P. Yogeshwar exchanged barbs on Thursday without taking each other’s names.
The Chief Minister ridiculed the leaders who had been to New Delhi to seek a leadership change and said they had been “given the right answer and sent back”. He said, “COVID-19 is the only priority right now.” He appealed to his party legislators and Ministers to work towards containing the spread of the virus.
Mr. Yogeshwar, who had camped in New Delhi, said in an oblique reply, “As a Minister, I do not want my son to exercise power in my name. Similarly, nobody should exercise power on behalf of the Chief Minister.” The unstated reference was to allegations of interference in administration by the Chief Minister’s son B.Y. Vijayendra.
He further said, “I would like to reiterate that what we have in Karnataka now is a BJP government that has a tacit understanding with the Opposition Congress and JD(S). We do not have a pure BJP government,” he said.
He claimed that he was keen to see that the BJP strengthened in Old Mysore region, but the party was “compromising with the Opposition parties”. He also said that he had discussed various issues with the party’s Central leaders in the past 15 days.
