Up in arms against MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal, Karnataka BJP unit to approach high command
Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra is expected to raise the state unit’s issues with MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal with the national leadership in Delhi after the Winter Session of Parliament ends.
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BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal. (Photo: X)Despite their past failures in convincing the BJP high command to discipline BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal, the Karnataka BJP leadership under state president B Y Vijayendra is set to approach the national leadership seeking action against the legislator.
According to BJP sources, the issue of Yatnal’s repeated ‘personal attacks’ on Vijayendra and his father, BJP Parliamentary Board member and former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, will be a key topic during the state core committee meeting on December 7. Vijayendra is also expected to raise the issue in Delhi after the conclusion of the Winter Session of Parliament.
The month-long campaign seeking to abolish the Waqf Board launched in Bidar by Yatnal and his supporters MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi and former MLAs Arvind Limbavali and Kumar Bangarappa is another grouse.
The state unit under Vijayendra had announced a campaign where three teams of legislators would tour the state and listen to grievances over notices issued by the Waqf Board for alleged encroachment. On November 15, both Yatnal and Vijayendra announced separate campaigns on the Waqf Board issue, exposing the cracks in the Karnataka BJP once again, and pouring cold water on efforts by RSS leaders in September this year to secure peace between the opposing factions.
Responding to media queries over Yatnal’s campaign, Yediyurappa said on Tuesday that the legislator had gone ahead with the campaign despite party attempts to ensure everyone went together over the issue. “Vijayendra requested him to join hands with the party. But he is doing it because his self-esteem is unbecoming of him,” he said.
On Yatnal’s refusal to toe the party line, the former chief minister said that the party unit was doing its best. “Rest is left to them (Yatnal faction) and the party high command,” he said, adding that the national leadership was aware of the issue. “Let us see what they do,” he added.
The differences within the state unit impacted the launch of the campaign at Bidar. A section of BJP leaders had protested the use of posters with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda at the Yatnal camp’s event. Apart from this, the state unit is learnt to have issued directions to local units not to back any campaign apart from the one organised by it.
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