IN A disarray since losing the state elections in May, the Karnataka BJP is likely to leave the decision on appointing leaders for the Legislative Assembly and Council till the eleventh hour before the start of the first formal Session of the Legislature on July 3. The BJP had initially indicated that central leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Arun Singh would arrive in Bengaluru on Sunday to attend a core committee meeting, where the choice of the Leader of the Opposition would be conveyed to the party leadership. Sources in the BJP however said on Saturday that no visit by central leaders or meetings of the BJP core committee had been scheduled for July 2. "The choice of the leaders for the two Houses will be decided probably at a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party on Monday morning (July 3), before the start of the Session. The visit by national leaders has not been firmed up," a BJP leader said. The BJP will look for a leader who can take on the ruling Congress, which has a formidable majority of 135 seats in the Assembly. Despite falling from 118 to 66 MLAs in the House, the BJP believes it can corner the Congress government on policy and administrative matters in conjunction with the JD(S), which has 19 MLAs. The Siddaramaiah government is set to introduce a series of Bills to overturn laws of the previous BJP regime. While the numbers of the BJP and JD(S) would not be enough to challenge that, the BJP hopes to put the Congress government on other issues. What has hampered the BJP's efforts to decide its leaders for the two Houses is the cold war between its various factions and leaders, which also contributed to the party's poll loss and has since broken out in the open. Even a new Karnataka BJP chief is yet to be picked despite the incumbent, Nalin Kumar Kateel, being on a one-year extension, which too is due to expire in August. The frontrunner for the LoP post - which is now more coveted than the state president's job, on account of its visibility in taking on the government - is said to currently be former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. Despite an opinion within the party that Bommai was partly responsible for the BJP's poll defeat due to several wrong policy decisions and his inability to inspire confidence in the administration, Bommai has emerged ahead on account of the infighting between the factions allied to former CM B S Yediyurappa and BJP organisation secretary B L Santhosh. "Although a leader like Basavaraj Patil Yatnal has the potential to take on the government in a forceful manner, he is unlikely to be made the LoP. The party is likely to go with a candidate familiar with the administrative system," a senior BJP leader said. Plus, Yediyurappa is said to be opposed to Yatnal. A BJP functionary said the choice for the posts of the LoP and state president is linked. "There has to be a balancing of caste equations. If a Lingayat (Bommai or Yatnal) is made the LoP in the Assembly, then the party president would have to be a Vokkaliga," the leader said. Another senior BJP leader said that if the party has learnt its lessons from the poll loss, it should ideally pick “Yatnal as the LoP and Shobha Karandlaje (a Vokkaliga) as the state president”. “The party is however weighed down by other considerations like internal factions," the leader said. Among others said to be in the race for LoP are the young Karkala MLA, Sunil Kumar Karkala (a member of the OBC Billava community). But he is linked to the Santhosh group and hence unlikely to find favor with the Yediyurappa faction. According to some sources, it will come down to Bommai as LoP in the Assembly and an OBC leader like Kota Srinivas Poojary as Leader of the party in the Council, with a Vokkaliga becoming state president. Sources said the BJP briefly considered making former home minister Araga Jnanendra, a Vokkaliga, the LoP and picking a Lingayat as state president, but has now dropped the option. Apart from Karandlaje, currently a Union minister, who is considered neutral, the other frontrunners from the Vokkaliga community for the role of BJP state president are national general secretary C T Ravi - who is identified with the Santhosh camp - and former minister R Ashok, who is not in the good books of the BJP central leadership. The infighting within the state BJP in the run-up to the designation of new leadership roles has become ugly in recent weeks with rival faction leaders constantly sniping at each other and pointing fingers for the poll loss of the party. On Friday, Kateel said 11 party members had been issued notices over anti-party statements. The BJP state president made the statement after reports of selective disciplining of members of the Yediyurappa faction. "It has been decided to inquire into allegations of anti-party activities during the election. We have personally spoken to those who are making statements that have embarrassed the party. Notices have been issued, and they have been clearly told not to make such statements in the future," Kateel said. In a statement, Yediyurappa said no party leader should step out of line. "We have called those who have made statements and spoken to them. They have been told to be cautious.” While there was no official word, reports said the 11 who got notices were Yatnal, A S Patil (Nadahalli), Veeranna Charantimath, Pratap Simha, Thammesh Gowda, S Muniraju, Ramesh Jigajinagi, M P Renukacharya, Murugesh Nirani, Prabhu Chavan and Ishwar Singh Thakur. Renukacharya, a Yediyurappa loyalist who lost in the recent elections, did not turn up for the Friday meeting and said he would write to the BJP central leadership directly about the causes for the party's defeat. There is talk that Renukacharya might move to the Congress, which the former MLA has not officially denied. Renukacharya, who had said that Kateel should have quit after the Assembly poll loss, was earlier served a notice for disciplinary action.
