What started on Saturday evening as a symbol of common BJP worker’s opposition to Gulab Chand Kataria’s Lok Jagaran Yatra, transformed on Sunday into a show of strength by leader of the opposition Vasundhra Raje’s loyalists.
What started on Saturday evening as a symbol of common BJP worker’s opposition to Gulab Chand Kataria’s Lok Jagaran Yatra, transformed on Sunday into a show of strength by leader of the opposition Vasundhra Raje’s loyalists.
Till Sunday evening, 60 of 79 party MLAs had quit the state assembly in support of Raje, who threatened to resign after storming out of Saturday’s party meeting which, ironically, was called to unite the warring factions.
Not only did the 57 party legislators hand in their resignations, but some of them, including Bhawani Singh Rajawat, even demanded that the national leadership formally declare Raje as the party’s sole chief ministerial candidate in 2013 assembly polls.
Ex-ministers Digambar Singh, Kalicharan Saraf, Rohitashwa Sharma and Prabhulal Saini also came out in Raje’s support. Rajsamand MLA Kiran Maheshwari, also BJP national general secretary, BJP-backed independent MLA Ranvir Pahalwan, and Gyandev Ahuja, from the RSS stable tendered their resignations to project Raje as the undisputed leader of the party in Rajasthan.
With the crisis deepening, senior party leaders, including ex-state party chief and Rajya Sabha member Om Mathur, newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav and state party joint in-charge Kirit Somaiya, held a series of meetings with Raje and her loyalists, to defuse the crisis.
Finally ending her silence on Sunday afternoon, Raje said, “It is our party’s internal matterwhich will be resolved amicably.” Mathur seconded Raje, “There is no crisis as the matter will be resolved within the party.” Mathur termed the resignation by MLAs as an outburst of their intense feelings.
Even the national leadership, which was comfortable with a ringside view of the game till now, was forced to step in and play the umpire to prevent the crisis from blowing into a full-scale war.
According to party insiders, party president Nitin Gadkari has called an urgent meeting on Monday to settle the issue.
Bellary MLAs ready to join rebel outfit
Reiterating their loyalty to former minister B Sriramulu, the Bellary BJP MLAs have declared that they would soon quit the party and join, Sriramulu’s new party, BSR party.
Supporters of Sriramulu have dared party state president KS Eshwarappa to take disciplinary action against them.
On Sunday, chairman of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and MLA G Somashekara Reddy announced that supporters of Sriramulu will contest the next assembly elections under the banner of Badavara Shramikara Raithara(BSR) Paksha founded by their leader.
Somashekara Reddy a close associate of Sriramulu said, “All MLAs supporting Sriramulu have decided to contest coming assembly elections under BSR party. The state BJP party president Eshwarappa has threatened that he would serve a show cause notice to us, as of now we have not received any letter and we are not afraid of it. All the MLAs and MPs who have been supporting Sriramulu will also support his ongoing Padayatra.”
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