The Hindu : Karnataka News : Bangarappa to join Samajwadi Party

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Bangarappa to join Samajwadi Party

By Our Special Correspondent

The former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa greeting Samajwadi Party leader and Education Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Ashray Vishwakarma, at his residence in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE, JAN. 11. The exit of the Shimoga MP and former Chief Minister, S. Bangarappa, from the BJP has become a certainty and he will be joining the Samajwadi Party. There are also indications that some of the Janata Dal (Secular) leaders who have revolted against the leadership of the party president and former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, will quit the party. Their next course of action is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Mr. Bangarappa on Tuesday had a discussion with the Uttar Pradesh Minister for Higher Education, Ram Ashray Vishwakarma, an emissary of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh Minister, who was here to attend the Conference of Education Ministers, called on Mr. Bangarappa at his residence in the evening.

`Unexpected'

Mr. Bangarappa later told presspersons that his entry into the BJP and his decision to resign from it were both unexpected for himself. He indicated that the Samajwadi Party will come into existence in Karnataka before the elections to the gram panchayats due next month. However, he did not say anything about resigning his seat in the Lok Sabha. To a question whether he was not leaving his followers in the lurch, Mr. Bangarappa said that it was inevitable. Denying that his move was opportunistic, the former Chief Minister said that he was in politics for over 40 years, but he had occupied positions of power for only four years.

Mr. Bangarappa resigned from the Congress to join the BJP shortly before the April 2004 Lok Sabha elections. He got elected from Shimoga by defeating the Congress candidate, Ayanur Manjunath, who was a hardcore BJP activist till last year. The former Chief Minister has a history of changing political loyalty. He began his political career as a Socialist and was elected to the State Assembly on that party's nomination in 1967 and 1972.

The defeat of the BJP-led NDA is stated to have come as a big disappointment for Mr. Bangarappa, who had hoped to join the Union Cabinet. He also found that he could not carry his seniority in politics into the BJP as was the case of some others who had joined that party in recent years. The State BJP leaders came together to prevent him from becoming the State unit president. Mr. Bangarappa openly questioned the mode of selection of Jagadish Shettar as the State party chief and said that proper consultations were not held by the all-India leadership.

In recent days, he came out against the BJP's all-India leadership and said that it was harping on emotive issues such as Ayodhya and not issues of concern to the common people. The State Congress leaders such as the KPCC President, B. Janardhana Poojary, had opposed Mr. Bangarappa's re-entry into the party.

The Samajwadi Party is non-existent in Karnataka and Mr. Bangarappa will have to build it from scratch.

Mr. Bangarappa's entry into the BJP had also caused a split in his family. His elder son, Kumar Bangarappa, who had joined the BJP for some days went back to the Congress and was elected to the State Assembly from Sorab defeating his younger brother, Madhu Bangarappa (BJP).

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