The Hindu : Karnataka News : All is not well in State BJP: MP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

All is not well in State BJP: MP

By Our Staff Correspondent

TUMKUR, JAN. 24. S. Mallikarjunaiah, Bharatiya Janata Party MP for Tumkur and former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, has urged party leaders in the State to "reorganise party units at all levels by involving experienced leaders."

He has also asked them to properly utilise the services of leaders who joined the party in the recent past.

Mr. Mallikarjunaiah, who was not that active in the past five years, said in a press release here on Monday that "all is not well in the Karnataka BJP and I have personally tried in vain, several times, to set things right."

Mr. Mallikarjunaiah said that the "BJP's national leaders have been busy with pressing issues, and I can appreciate their inability to devote much time to the State unit affairs." But, he said, he cannot understand why the party's leaders in the State are behaving strangely on many issues, which "I have brought to their notice a number of times."

The MP took a dig at B.S. Yediyurappa, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, and tempered his attack against Jagadish Shettar, President of the party's State unit.

Yediyurappa criticised

He said that Varadaraja Shetty and Karamballi Sanjiva Shetty are veterans of the party. They, along with several others, built the party (then called Jan Sangh) from scratch, travelling across the State from Bidar to Bangalore, paying for the expenses on their own. "Mr. Yediyurappa has failed to keep them informed of party matters let alone taking them into confidence (on party matters," he said.

He said that B.S. Shivappa still has a large following in the party although he is not in the BJP any more. The BJP national leaders are too willing to have Mr. Shivappa back in the party fold. "I do not know why Mr. Yediyurappa has not made any effort in this direction."

Mr. Mallikarjunaiah has taken strong exception to the way the party is treating leaders who joined it in the recent past. "Rajashekara Murthy (who defected from Congress) is an example," he said.

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