Knives out in Karnataka BJP as C T Ravi blames ‘adjustment politics’ with rivals for party debacle

Such a message, it seems, was not heeded by some of the state party leaders, going by BJP national general secretary C T Ravi’s allegations.

Addressing reporters Friday after the Karnataka BJP held a meeting to assess the party’s debacle in the May 10 polls, Ravi trained his guns on his state party colleagues, blaming their “compromise politics” with the party’s rivals for its defeat in the polls. “The compromise politics of some leaders also caused us problems. If there was no compromise politics, we would not have lost power,” he alleged.

Due to such an “adjustment politics”, the BJP failed to capitalise on issues that would have cornered Congress and given it an edge, Ravi charged. “I can’t say (more). But, the compromise and adjustment politics of some people made it difficult for the party… How many times did we ask (the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government) to table a report on the Arkavathy case (to corner Siddaramaiah)? If we had acted on irregularities related to solar power (against D K Shivakumar), then this situation would not have arisen,” he claimed.

Ravi’s remarks came at a time when two dominant factions of the state BJP have blamed each other for the party’s defeat. Ravi was among those who lost the polls. He was defeated in the Chikkamagaluru seat by H D Thammaiah, who was affiliated to the B S Yediyurappa camp before he switched to the Congress ahead of the polls.

A Vokkaliga leader, Ravi is believed to have faced a blowback from the sizeable Lingayat community in

Chikkamagaluru, which blamed him among those responsible for Yediyurappa’s ouster as the CM.

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, whose party too fared poorly, latched on to Ravi’s remarks to accuse the Congress and the BJP of having an “internal understanding”.

“I have noticed a statement made by C T Ravi. He said that Congress and BJP had an internal understanding. I want to ask Congress leaders that they had a pact with whom? You were the ones calling us the BJP ‘B’ team. Now tell us who is which team?” he said.

The Congress, meanwhile, has chosen to steer clear of the row, with party functionaries accusing Ravi of making such remarks out of “sheer desperation”. ”Even BJP leaders know that the rift between Yediyurappa camp and BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh camp was the factor that hurt them the most. Moreover, people were tired of BJP and its corrupt government,” a Congress spokesperson said. There was no need to read much into Kumaraswamy’s remarks too, he said, accusing the ex-CM of pursuing a “politics of convenience”.

The growing discontent in the Karnataka BJP has already started playing out openly over the nomination of the BJP candidates for the Lok Sabha polls due in April-May next year. Signalling the brewing trouble, former CM

D V Sadananda Gowda, the Bengaluru North MP, recently came out to accuse some party insiders of allegedly hatching a conspiracy to deny the 2024 poll tickets to the state’s sitting party MPs.

The BJP was trounced by the Congress in the polls, slumping to 66 seats against the latter’s 135 in the 224-member Assembly.