Author: Kumar Uttam & Kestur Vasuki
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 31, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/212515/'Jaganmohan-link'-fears-coming-true-for-BJP.html
Cong, JD(S) waiting to destabilise BSY Govt;
Central BJP summons 'rebels' to New Delhi
The drama in Karnataka BJP will now be played
out in New Delhi, with the party leadership summoning the "rebel leaders"
to the national Capital on Saturday to defuse the crisis, even as the BJP's
worst fears about the "Andhra link" behind the turbulence seemed
to be coming true.
Sources say Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar,
influential mine-owning Bellary brothers - Tourism Minister Gali Janardan
Reddy and Revenue Minister Karunakar Reddy - and Health Minister B Sriramulu
would be in the Capital on Saturday to hold a dialogue with central leaders
after they failed to sort out differences in Bangalore.
Even though the BJP has ruled out any leadership
change, the rebels have projected Shettar as their chief ministerial candidate.
Incumbent Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is open to inducting him into the
Cabinet. Earlier, there were reports about Shettar rejecting Yeddyurappa's
Deputy Chief Minister offer.
However, sources close to the CM said that
inducting Shettar as the Deputy CM was not possible because he belonged to
Yeddyurappa's community - Lingayat - and it would be politically naïve
to give two plum posts in the Government to leaders from the same community.
Shettar showed no signs of reconciliation and told The Pioneer that he was
certainly in the fray (for the chief ministership). He was confident of the
party's central leadership taking a favourable decision looking at the rebellion
in the ranks against Yeddyurappa.
"It has become a Tughlak durbar. I have
told (Arun) Jaitley about my stand. The situation now has gone out of control.
They have called me to Delhi and I am going (on Saturday). Let me see what
happens," Shettar said.
Political observers, however, say both the
Janata Dal(S) and the Congress were watching the developments keenly and might
look at an opportunity to destabilise the first BJP Government in South India.
In fact, a senior Union minister from Karnataka
has said that his high command was watching the developments and was in touch
with the State unit. JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy
also tried to fish in troubled waters by indicating that his party was not
averse to supporting either the Congress or the BJP.
Before leaving for Mumbai, Leader of Opposition
in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who had been camping in Bangalore for the
last two days to defuse the crisis, ruled out a change in leadership and lauded
Yeddyurappa for doing a great job. Yeddyurappa, who attended office on Friday
after three days, not only spoke about relief work for the flood-affected
people of North Karnataka but was also confident of resolving the crisis.
According to the BJP sources, senior BJP leader
LK Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj would
talk to the rebel leaders to save the Government. Swaraj holds considerable
clout among the rebels since she had contested the Lok Sabha byelection from
Bellary against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. She even regularly comes to Bellary
to perform Varamhalakshmi Vratha.
Meanwhile, BJP's worst fears about the "Andhra
link" behind the Karnataka crisis are apparently coming true. The trouble
started a couple of months ago when many senior BJP leaders were flooded with
complaints about efforts by the Bellary brothers to foment dissidence in the
Karnataka Government at the behest of then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS
Rajasekhara Reddy.
The nexus among the Bellary brothers, Health
Minister B Sriramulu -- though he is not part of the Reddy family -- and YSR
was so evident that Brahmani Steels, a company promoted by Reddy brothers,
decided to set up a 10 MT steel plant in YSR's home district of Kadapa.
"YSR's death was a major setback for
Bellary brothers. But YSR's son and Kadapa MP Jaggan Mohan Reddy took off
from where his father had left. Jagan was actively involved with these businessmen-politicians
even when his father was alive," sources who have seen Bellary brothers
from close quarters said.
The BJP leaders in New Delhi suspect that
there was "definite link" between turbulence in Karnataka and the
ongoing crisis in Andhra Pradesh. Jagan has unsuccessfully tried to convince
the Congress leadership to elevate him as the Chief Minister after his father's
death.
Sources revealed to The Pioneer that the Bellary
brothers upped the ante after Congress sounded out to Jagan to get "actively
involved" in Karnataka and bring out the "desired results"
before laying claim to the chief ministership in Andhra Pradesh. So it did
not surprise many in the BJP when more than a dozen 'rebel' BJP MLAs shifted
base to Andhra Pradesh and checked into a hotel, where no outsider was allowed
to meet them.
