Yatnal flays ‘mockery’ of internal elections in BJP state unit

A day after the BJP cleared appointments of 23 district presidents, BJP rebel camp leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Thursday said the party high command should stop playing ‘hide and seek’ with party leaders, by holding ‘dubious’ internal elections.

Instead, it could straightaway announce that B Y Vijayendra would continue as
the party’s state president, he said.

Yatnal told reporters here that Vijayendra was sitting on a pile of wealth which none in the BJP could match and whatever was happening in the state unit was purely due to his ‘money power’.

“We have seen BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, who after taking over Karnataka’s charge, became crorepati and settled well in life in Rajasthan,” he alleged. 

Yatnal said he knew many things about national general secretary Dr Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, the incumbent incharge of the party’s affairs in the state, too and that he would reveal them at the opportune time.

He said Vijayendra was running the party like a company and had appointed leaders of his choice to head BJP units from the booth level to the district level.

“He is trying to finish off his rivals through money power. I want to tell the party high command not to play hide and seek with us. If you (high command) are so eager, why not announce his name as state party president. Why make a mockery of internal democracy?,” he said.

Yatnal charged that Vijayendra had succeeded in appointing those leaders who were once part of Karnataka Janata Party, formed by his father Yediyurappa ‘to defeat the BJP in the 2013 elections’.

“All original BJP workers have been sidelined. None of the MPs is happy with the way he appointed district presidents. The new list is full of either KJP workers, realtors or business partners of Vijayendra,” he alleged. 

Rebels’ meet today 

Yatnal said that their (rebels’) ‘core committee’ would be meeting on Friday and they were also in touch with the ‘neutral camp,’ led by the likes of leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka and former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, to finalise the candidate to contest against Vijayendra for the state president’s post.