After a brief radio silence, the rebel Karnataka BJP faction seeking the removal of state party president B Y Vijayendra is scheduled to hold a meeting in Bengaluru on Thursday. The meeting comes 10 days after the party’s central disciplinary committee served a second notice in three months to MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal, the leader of the camp, for defying directives and repeatedly attacking Vijayendra. At a news conference on Wednesday, Vijayendra played down the meeting between Yatnal, former ministers Ramesh Jarkiholi, Kumar Bangarappa, and others. “As far as the disturbances within the state BJP are concerned, the central leadership has already taken note of it. They have issued notice and whoever has to respond has responded,” he said. Responding to questions on the meeting, Vijayendra said that the camp opposed to him were not rebels. “Don't call them rebels. They might be meeting to discuss developments of the party,” he said. Earlier, Vijayendra had hinted that the central leadership had put an end to the differences by noting that the camp opposed to him had gone silent since the past week. To a question on the state president’s post, he said that while the media was confused about whether the Karnataka unit will see re-appointment or appointment of a new president, he was not in any dilemma. The central leadership has picked presidents for 10 state units, he said. “In the rest of the states, the process is still not over. Here in Karnataka, district presidents have been appointed for 23-25 units of which one is kept in abeyance. In the rest of the districts, appointment of presidents will be completed in two to three days,” he said. Vijayendra, who was appointed state BJP president in November 2023, is expected to complete his term despite demands by the Yatnal camp to replace him. The buzz is that the party high command has refused to yield to their demands.
