Infighting in the rudderless BJP broke out in full public view on Monday when senior leaders walked out of an event meant to discuss nine years of the Modi administration.
The chaos came hours after senior leader KS Eshwarappa lamented about deteriorating discipline in the BJP.
Monday’s developments show the state of affairs in the BJP after it lost the Assembly elections. Over a month after the poll results were announced, the saffron party is yet to choose its Leader of the Opposition.
Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and other BJP leaders were about to inaugurate the district-level party workers’ meeting when the supporters of Bijapur City MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal tried to stop them. They wanted the event to start only after Yatnal arrived.
Slogans were raised against Bijapur MP Ramesh Jigajinagi, former minister Murugesh Nirani and former MLC Arun Shahapur. Yatnal’s supporters created a ruckus when Jigajinagi was projected as the Bijapur candidate for next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Police and BJP leaders had a tough time bringing the situation under control.
On stage, both Nirani and Yatnal made oblique attacks against each other.
Later, Jigajinagi, Nirani and others walked out while Bommai, Chikkodi MP Annasaheb Jolle, former ministers Shashikala Jolle and Govind Karjol stayed on as mute spectators.
Speaking to reporters, Nirani demanded an apology from Yatnal for creating a ruckus through his supporters.
Bommai, however, played it down. “There will be tempers. But at the end of the day, we’re all one when it comes to making the BJP win,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eshwarappa said the BJP had “total discipline” at one point in time. “As the party grew, discipline came down here and there. Some persons from the Congress came to the BJP, and we’re experiencing the impact,” he said in what was made out to be a reference to Congress MLAs who defected in 2019.
Eshwarappa subsequently clarified that he was not talking about them. “I just said the wind of Congress culture touched us, bringing in a little indiscipline,” he said.
Of late, much to the party’s embarrassment, some BJP leaders such as Mysore MP Pratap Simha have attacked their peers for “adjustment” politics. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said he had asked Simha to raise matters internally and not publicly.
The Congress had a field day poking fun at the BJP in a series of tweets. “Looking at the way introspection meetings are taking place, it is possible that the BJP will die by suicide,” it quipped.
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