JOIN USNeed platform to be heard, says BJP MLA Sunil Kumar
BJP legislator and the government’s chief whip V Sunil Kumar on Tuesday asked the party leadership to “provide us a platform” where they can air their grievances, in a sign of possible implosion waiting to happen.
“Remarks coming in the media in the last three days are not good in the interest of the party. A few comments from a few people are not the same as all MLAs & party workers,” Kumar said in a tweet.
“We can't tell our opinion to the media, request party leaders to provide us a platform to hear us,” Kumar said, tagging BJP national general secretaries Arun Singh (who is in charge of Karnataka), C T Ravi and state party president Nalin Kumar Kateel.
Kumar belongs to that crop of MLAs who consider themselves as loyal to the party’s ideology, natives who have risen through the organization, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent.
When contacted, Kumar declined to comment.
Sources say Kumar’s tweet was in response to BJP leaders making public statements, some favouring Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and some against.
One MLA told DH on condition of anonymity that there is “much disillusionment” within the party over the way the government is functioning and the direction the party is headed in.
“In the last one year, there’s much internal disgruntlement and we’re not able to say it openly,” the MLA said.
“There are 60+ like-minded MLAs and just because we’re quiet, it doesn’t mean we agree with whatever is happening.”
According to this MLA, there is discontentment that the Yediyurappa administration is not functioning “based on the ideals of PM Modi”.
“MLAs have not been taken into confidence. Not only is there disparity in allocating grants to constituencies, there are many policy decisions that we want the government to make,” the MLA added.
The BJP’s move to constitute a 10-member committee, including Yediyurappa, to address legislators’ grievances and stop them from washing dirty linen in public has inspired little confidence.
“We haven’t been told anything officially about such a committee,” the MLA said.
A senior BJP MLC said the committee was of little use at a time when the demand is to convene a legislature party meeting where legislators can express themselves. "There is some anger over the alleged nepotism and interference by Yediyurappa’s family members in the administration," the MLC said.