Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Dec 31: BJP leader, K S Eshwarappa, who has carved out a niche for himself as far as posing challenges and making inflammable utterances publicly are concerned, is now forced to eat humble pie. He has now encountered the litmus test, of proving that he keeps his words, particularly the challenge he had set for himself.

During the election to the legislative council, Eshwarappa, former minister and former state BJP president, had openly declared that he would distance himself from all political activity if ruling Congress is able to bag even one seat more than the BJP. To his horror, what he had never thought has happened, and Congress has bagged 13 seats as against the BJP tally of six. Therefore, people were eager to know from when Eshwarappa will accept defeat and go into political hibernation.

But this expectation has been belied. Eshwarappa has now come out with the explanation that the above challenge was made by him at Mysuru and Tumakuru. He says that the question of meeting the terms of challenge would have arisen, had chief minister, Siddaramaiah, accepted the challenge. By claiming that the challenge would have become meaningful and the question of his exit from political scenario would have gained some meaning had the challenge been accepted. He has indirectly taken the stance that one need not adhere to public declarations made by himself.

After the results came out and it was clear that BJP had fared poorly at the hustings, Eshwarappa, speaking to media persons, agreed that he had thrown the gauntlet, but Siddaramaiah, who was worried about the prospects of losing the election, was wary of accepting the challenge. "Siddaramaiah has now become victorious by employing a number of ulterior tactics," he said in an effort to wriggle himself out of the situation.

In response to what Eshwarappa had to explain, Siddaramaiah said that Eshwarappa had publicly announced that he would take rest from political activities if Congress got an upper hand in council election. One expects him to stay committed to what he himself set out."I do not insist that he should take political recluse. But his statement now in the face of the need to meet his own words, only exposes his attitude of changing colours to suit his own needs," he stated.