Eshwarappa sore with Shettar for 'ignoring' him

Says he was kept in the dark about the formation of new taluks

 Simmering differences between Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa came to the fore on Saturday at a meeting attended by party national leader Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley, along with Dharmendra Pradhan, in-charge of party affairs for Karnataka, held a series of meetings with some senior leaders to elicit their views on appointment of State BJP president.

Eshwarappa expressed his displeasure at Shettar for “ignoring” him in administrative matters concerning his department - Revenue. He alleged that he was kept in dark about formation of 43 new taluks. He also cited many more instances where he was not taken into confidence, it is learnt.

Shettar reportedly said that he had not ignored his colleagues deliberately but due to time constraints, he might have not brought to notice certain decisions taken.

Jaitley intervened and suggested the two to set aside their differences in the interest of the party. It was decided that senior members of the party will meet on March 15 and 16 in Bangalore to select candidates for the Assembly constituencies where the party has no sitting MLAs.

After Jaitley and Pradhan left Bangalore, the seniors including Shettar, Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda held a marathon meeting to discuss the preparations for the elections. While the party has already decided to give tickets to almost all the sitting MLAs, it has to select contestants for the constituencies where it has no legislators.

Sources in the party said Ananth Kumar tried to convince Major Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani not to quit the party to join the Karnataka Janata Party. Nirani, an MLA from Bilagi, is keen on contesting from Jamakhandi. The party has no intention of denying ticket to Srikanth Kulkarni, the sitting MLA from Jamakhandi.

It is said that Nirani was not only persuaded to stay in the party but also to contest from Bilagi itself. Besides Nirani, ministers Basavaraj Bommai and Umesh Katti met Jaitely.

Nirani is at loggerheads with Minister Govind Karjol over sugarcane price issue. He is of the view that the party stood by Karjol, while ignoring him. This is also one of the reasons cited by Nirani to be upset with the party.

Ananth Kumar, who held talks with Nirani assured to hold a meeting on March 12 to iron out differences between the two ministers.