By Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
THE FLOP RESORT OF BLACKMAIL!
YEDURAPPA ACUTELY REVOLTS WITH RESORT POLITICS, BUT FAILS.
The ‘now or never’ battle of BSY to reclaim the CM post has yielded no positive results. The way in which Yedurappa ‘lodged’ his MLAs in a Luxury Resort and the way in which he blackmailed the BJP High Command to become the CM again, have not gone down well with the High Command. In fact Yedurappa’s threat to boycott the Budget session and defeat Sadananda government backfired on him. And he meekly ‘withdrew’ his resort battle....
For the last one month, Yedurappa was blowing hot and cold with the BJP High Command, holding his supporters meetings, conventions etc. to prove his strength. Yedurappa was in a mortal hurry to become the CM and his battle was spearheaded by lingayath Ministers like V.Somanna, Bommai, CM Udasi, Jagadish Shettar, Renukacharya, Nirani etc. His Woman Friday Shobha Karandlaje was the Liaison person to hold parleys with High Command leaders particularly those favourable to Yedurappa.
And the timing was perfect. The elections to four Rajya Sabha seats were scheduled and the by-election to Udupi - Chickmagalur Loksabha seat was to be held on 18th of March. Most importantly, the Budget Session was to commence from 20th of March and Sadananda, who also holds the Finance portfolio was to present the budget on 21st. Yedurappa had decided to strike at this appropriate time. On 15th March, he returned from his Delhi trip, on the pretext of visit to Vaishnodevi Temple and made a sweeping remark that he will not campaign for the BJP candidate in Udupi - Chikamagalur by-elections.
On 18th, in a swift move, he took about 40 of his loyalist MLAs and Ministers to Golden Palm Resort on the outskirts of Bangalore, and lodged them there. Then, he set a 48 hours deadline to the High Command to accept his demands and make him the CM again or threatened to pull down Sadananda government. Yedurappa badly wanted to prevent Sadananda in presenting his maiden budget. The gist and essence of his demands were (1) make him the CM before 19th March (2) allow him to present the budget and (3) if there is a time delay for making him the CM, the High Command should make Jagadish Shettar to present the budget by making him the Finance Minister for the time being. The High Command was taken by surprises over the sudden revolt and tried to persuade him but he stuck to his ground.
However, after realising that his deadline may not be met, he became further desperate and took extreme steps. First he fielded B.J. Puttaswamy, a rebel candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections and later boycotted the first day of the Budget session. Yedurappa’s boycott of the Budget session hurt the leaders and cadres of BJP as the obituary was to be placed for the demise of Dr. V.S.Acharya, one of the founding fathers and senior most leader of State BJP. Whatever may be the problems, Yedurappa and his loyals should have attended the obituary reference to Dr. Acharya, as a minimum courtesy and respect.
Further, Yedurappa had decided to boycott the budget session itself putting a question mark over the presentation of the budget by Sadananda on 21st. If Yedurappa camp boycotted the budget presentation, there would be constitutional crisis and there was all the possibility of the president’s rule. The threat of boycott of the budget session was the ultimate blackmail. And Yedurappa wanted the High Command to make him the CM, at the most by 19th March!
The High Command took strong exception to his tantrums, but promised to consider his demands sympathetically after the budget session. Even though Yedurappa pressed hard his bargain, the High Command said a firm no to him.
At the same time, there were some dissents among the Yedurappa camp. Arvind Limbavali, one of the proposers of Puttaswamy’s candidature to the Rajya Sabha elections, withdrew his proposal stating that he was cheated into believing Puttaswamy being the official candidate of the party. Moreover, the High Command too did not take the rebel candidate issue lightly. Fearing legal repercussions, Puttaswamy withdrew the nomination, but the damage had already been done. The state BJP President K.S.Eswarappa suspended Puttaswamy and issued show cause notices to the 10 MLAs who have signed the nomination papers. This had desired effect and in the process, Puttaswamy lost his post.
Now, it became clear that in case the High Command takes a tough stand, not many MLAs would remain with Yedurappa. Arun Jaitely, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha who has a soft corner for Yedurappa was also upset with his open revolt. He reminded Yedurappa that he has to fight corruption cases in future and promised help in case he abandons his revolt.
Most importantly, the RSS Boss Bhagawath intervened and directed Nitin Gadkari to take stern measures against Yedurappa and company if they continue their tantrums. And thereafter the Yedurappa camp felt the heat and it became difficult to keep the flock together. The High Command evolved a face saving formula to bail out Yedurappa and promised him a suitable rehabilitation after the budget session. Yedurappa and his few loyalists are invited to Delhi for further talks and discussions. Finally, he called off the revolt and participated in the Budget presentation by Sadananda, much to his chagrin.
After the revolt was over, the Yedurappa camp planted stories in the media that he will be reinstated as the CM after 31st. Co-incidentally; the BJP lost the Udupi - Chickmagalur Loksabha seat to Congress candidate Jayaprakash Hegde. This seat was held by Sadananda before he became the CM. In fact, the Yedurappa camp was happy at the BJP loss as they can argue that because Yedurappa did not campaign, the BJP lost. But, it should be remembered that Yedurappa had camped for three days in Bellary for the by-election, yet, the BJP candidate lost the election and his deposit.
Whatsoever, Yedurappa’s blackmail politics did not pay any dividends. Whether he will be made the CM or not is an entirely different question. But the way in which he boycotted the Assembly session, abstained from paying homage to Dr.Acharya, put up a rebel candidate for the RSS polls, and the manner in which he tried to prevent budget presentation has not gone well with the BJP and the common man.
That is all.
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