BJP decides to wait and watch amid coalition trouble

The BJP has decided not to take political advantage of the turbulence in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, the party’s state president B S Yeddyurappa said Tuesday.

This came amid an eventful day for the BJP state chief who held marathon meetings at his Dollar’s Colony residence here with party legislators, sparking speculation that the saffron party was up to something. Yeddyurappa had met BJP national president Amit Shah in Ahmedabad on Monday.

“There’s no clarity on anything and there’s total confusion. (Former chief minister) Siddaramaiah makes one statement, while (chief minister) H D Kumaraswamy makes another. In this atmosphere, we’d not like to interfere. I’ve requested our leaders not to speak anything,” Yeddyurappa told reporters here.

Alliance partners the Congress and the JD(S), especially Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy, are sparring over whether or not a full-fledged budget should be tabled on July 5, given that the Congress had tabled one in February 2018. Also, Siddaramaiah has rekindled doubts on the tenure of the coalition.

Yeddyurappa claimed that he met Shah only to invite him for the party’s state executive meeting scheduled to be held on June 29. However, he said the state’s political scenario will come up for discussion in that meeting. “Till then, we’ll only observe silently. We’ll work as a responsible Opposition,” he observed.

The executive committee meeting will also discuss the party’s strategy to win as many seats as possible in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said.

Mandya bypoll

BJP leaders Jagadish Shettar, R Ashoka, Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh Katti, Murugesh Nirani among others held talks with Yeddyurappa. Apparently, the leaders discussed the upcoming bypoll for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat and the party’s preparedness for the Parliament polls next year.

The Mandya Lok Sabha seat got vacated following JD(S) MP C S Puttaraju winning the Melukote Assembly seat in the May 12 polls. Ashoka, who represents Padmanabhanagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru, hinted that he was willing to contest the Mandya bypoll. “It will be decided based on who the Congress-JD(S) candidate will be, but I’ve worked as the Mandya district in-charge for three years. I’ll abide by whatever the party decides,” he said.