Bangalore: Yeddy Supporters Want their 'Leader' to be Made State BJP Chief
 
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
 
Bangalore, Sep 27: Even as the BJP national leadership is believed to be veering round to the selection of Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi or Mangalore MP Nalin Kumar Kateel as the next president of Karnataka unit of BJP in the place of K S Eshwarapa, who has moved to Jagadish Shettar cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister, supporters of former chief minister and Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurappa are gearing up to exert pressure on the party high command to choose their 'leader.”

With Yeddyurappa, who had been invited by the BJP national leadership to attend the ongoing national executive meeting being held at Surajkunnd in Haryana, deciding to skip the meet and instead rejuvenate himself at the Art of Living centre of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the supporters of the former chief minister met at the residence of Public Works Minister C M Udasi to chalk out their strategies.

They, however, declined to give details of the discussions and preferred to remain silent.
Udasi said the partymen want Yeddyurappa to be appointed as the State BJP President in view of his mass following across the State. ''We, however, would not like to comment on the issue as it is a decision to be taken by the party high command,” he said.

Party insiders suggested that Udasi and other staunch supporters of Yeddyurappa were likely to visit some of the key districts to drum up support for their leader and support whatever decision he might take in the near future.

But speculation is ripe within state party circles that that the Dharwad MP, Prahlad Joshi, might be chosen as the successor to Eshwarappa as part of the overall strategy of accommodating all the major communities.

While the chief minister Jagadish Shettar belongs to the Lingayat community like Yeddyurappa, there are two deputy chief ministers in the party in Eshwarappa and R Ashok, who belong to the backward Kuruba and politically powerful Vokkaliga communities respectively.

With the major communities of Lingayats and Vokkaligas as well as numerically large Kuruba community among the backward classes getting accommodated in key positions, the party would like to appoint a leader from the Brahmin community, who have been traditional supporters of BJP and Prahlad Joshi meets the requirement.

In fact, the party toyed with the idea of appointing Education Minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, a Brahim from Uttara Kannada district, or Kannada and Culture Minister Govind M Karjol, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, or the Higher Education Minister C T Ravi or Mangalore MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, both of whom are from the Vokkaliga community. But Prahlad Joshi seems to be having an edge over others and might probably get the nod.

Meanwhile, Eshwarappa, who is participating in the BJP national executive meet at Surajkund in Haryana, indicated that the party would choose a new President for the state unit in a day or two.

Excise Minister M P Renukacharya, a hardcore supporter of Yeddyurappa, sought to queer the pitch by stating that the former Chief Minister was a “mass leader and should not be confined to lingayat community.”

With the BJP taking on the UPA on the issue of corruption, the central leadership is said to be not in favour of making Yeddyurappa, battling a spate of corruption cases, Karnataka unit President ahead of next year assembly elections.

Realising that the BJP high command was unlikely to accept him as the State Party President, Yeddyurappa is believed to be seriously examining the proposal of floating his own regional outfit and might probably take a decision on quitting the party by the year-end.

In fact, with this end in view, Yeddyurppa has refused to name any person acceptable to him as the state party president when the BJP national leadership asked him to suggest the names of his nominees so as to retain him in the party.