Pressure from central leadership behind Eshwarappa's resignation

Rural Development Minister K S Eshwarappa's resignation announcement came after pressure from the party top brass, who asked him to quit to avoid embarrassing the party as it is holding a state executive committee meeting on April 16 and 17 at Hosapete.

Since the party national president J P Nadda is attending the event to sound poll bugle in the state and talk about the saffron party's clean governance and pro-development agenda, the BJP asked Eshwarappa to step down voluntarily before the meeting, sources in the BJP told DH.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's main poll campaign centred on anti-corruption and pro-development, letting a minister against whom Opposition parties and a contractors' association have made serious charges remain in power, would dent the image of the PM, said a leader from the BJP.

Also Read | Eshwarappa resigns as minister after furore over contractor's death

Top party leaders in Delhi gathered the details about the incident from Karnataka in-charge General Secretary Arun Singh — who is touring in the state — and communicated their decision to the minister on Thursday afternoon, the leader said.

While the Kuruba leader was initially reluctant to resign, he later relented after the central leaders promised him to reward him if he gets a clean chit in the case, the leader added.

“Since Eshwarappa is a tall OBC leader of the party and always stood with the organisation in his entire political career, the party also wanted him to resign on its own instead of sacking,” said the leader.

Also Read | K S Eshwarappa's days of yore

“Though earlier the party leaders wanted to wait till preliminary enquiry about the incident was over, later it was decided to ask him to resign as Congress leaders started staging Dharna in front of Vidhana Soudha on Thursday.”

However, a section of BJP leaders in Delhi were also against the resignation and suggested that asking the minister to quit based on mere allegations would amount to the party accepting the 40 per cent commission claim made by Congress and contractors' associations. A section of leaders also suggested that he can be removed in the cabinet reshuffle which is pending.

But since the state faces Assembly elections early next year and the Congress is amplifying its allegation against the BJP ruled government, the central leaders don’t want to take any chances. The BJP leaders wanted to change the narrative on corruption and asked Eshwarappa to resign, said the leader.

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