Bangalore: Rift between Yeddy & Reddy brothers widens as dissidence deepens
by Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Oct 27: The dissidence within the ruling BJP deepened on Tuesday with the Bellary Reddy brothers spurning a beleagured Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s reconciliation attempts, indicating the widening rift.
As the day progressed, a series of meetings were held in different camps at different places with a section of the `dissidents,’ including some of the ministers, even rushing to the residence of state assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar to assume the mantle of leadership as a prelude to bringing about change of guard in the state even as the Yeddyurappa regime is on the verge of completing 18 months in power.
With the series of meetings in both the rival camps and the worsening of bon-homie within the ruling party, soon after the flood situation receded and Yeddyurappa sought to cut the Reddy brothers to size by ignoring them as also abruptly transferring the Davangere deputy commissioner V N Prasad, considered quite close to health minister B Sriramulu, it is too early to say whether the dissidence in the ruling party has reached a point of no return. The chief minister’s decision to levy hefty toll charges on mining trucks as well as those transporting granite, timber and sand has come as the last straw.
Making matters worse, the chief minister has refused to relent and withdraw the toll charges on trucks on the plea that the proposal has been under discussion for the last three years as part of the effort to mobilise funds for the maintenance of roads and highways. The chief minister’s decision to appoint Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Chandrashekar as the chief of the `Asare’ programme for rehabilitation of the flood affected people without even consulting the revenue minister is considered as another snub to the Reddys. Obviously cheesed off with the chief minister’s tactics of ignoring their political clout or money power, the Bellary Reddys have mounted a vituperative attack against chief minister’s close confidant Shobha Karandlaje, rural development and panchayat raj minister, and home minister Dr V S Acharya of alleged ``political interference’’ in the functioning of other ministers.
While a gleeful opposition Congress leaders declined to openly comment on the growing dissidence within BJP and privately predicted that the ruling party was bound to collapse in the near future due to its internal contradictions, JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, who seldom conceals his anger against the Yeddyurappa regime, made a cryptic observation before the media in Delhi that ``fire is inevitable when there is conflict and it will be followed by rains to cool the temperature and bring about clarity.’’
After trying to downplay the issue and pretend that there was no serious trouble within BJP, despite the open revolt by the Bellary mining lords, comprising revenue minister G Karunakar Reddy, tourism and infrastructure minister G Janardhana Reddy and their close confidant health minister B Sriramulu and a couple of other ministers, Yeddyurappa convened a meeting of ministers and state party office-bearers including state BJP president D V Sadananda Gowda at his private residence in Dollar Colony in the city ostensibly to keep out the prying media.
Though the chief minister later told reporters that the meeting was convened to take stock of the devastating flood situation and the massive rehabilitationin work to be taken up in the flood affected northern Karnataka region, the revenue minister was conspicuous by his absence. In addition to Karunakar Reddy, his brother Janardhana Reddy and five to six other ministers close to the Bellary Reddy brothers also kept off the meeting to display their open displeasure and anger at Yeddyurappa and register their protest against the chief minister’s style of functioning.
Without directly naming the Reddy brothers and their supporters for raising the banner of revolt against his government, when it was busy making plans for the rehabilitation of the flood victims besides mobilising the necessary resources, Yeddyurappa lamented that ``honest and sincere work is not appreciated.’’
The chief minister, however, sought to put a brave face and made it clear that there were no serious problems within BJP. ``I will discuss (with Reddy brothers) and try to sort out misunderstandings, if any.’’
The state BJP president clarified that the meeting at the chief minister’s residence was convened to discuss the rehabilitation of flood affected people and decide the modalities of translocation of 220 constantly flood-prone villages along river banks. ``Naturally, all issues including political developments crop up when we discuss with the chief minister. The media speculation over the dissidence in the party also came up. We requested the chief minister to discuss with all legislators and ministers,’’ Sadananda Gowda said adding: ``The chief minister will also discuss with Janardhana Reddy and Karunakar Reddy.’’
He declined to term the meetings convened by the Reddy brothers or other BJP legislators as ``indiscipline or anti-party activities.’’
Meanwhile, Janardhana Reddy, who held a meeting of his ministerial supporters in his chamber in Vikas Soudha, adjacent to Vidhana Soudha, and explained that the purpose was to discuss the rehabilitation of the flood affected people. ``We will be launching the shifting of the 220 villages under the leadership of revenue minister (Karunakar Reddy) at Bellary on Wednesday. We have already persuaded the mining industrialists of Bellary to take up rebuilding of 1,000 houses in Bellary and Gadag districts,’’ he said feigning ignorance at the meeting convened by the chief minister.
When reporters informed him that Yeddyurappa had convened a meeting of ministers and party office-bearers in the morning, Janardhana Reddy said: ``Is that so? We have not been informed and I don’t know why it has been convened.
Janardhana Reddy made it clear that they would be holding a separate meeting at Hospet in Bellary district on November 2. ``We are born and brought up in the north Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka region. It is our duty to look after the interests of the region,’’ he said.
Water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai and higher education minister Aravind Limbavali, who attended the meeting convened at Yeddyurappa’s residence, met Janardhana Reddy in his chamber. But the outcome of the meeting was not known.
In a separate development, BJP’s Honnali MLA M P Renukacharya, one-time close supporter of Yeddyurappa, who has been lately indentifying himself with dissident groups within the ruling party and even supporting the Bellary mining lords, convened a meeting of `dissident’ BJP MLAs at his esidence in which as many as eight MLAs participated. ``It is nothing but a tea-party,’’ he old reporters.
Surprisingly, former minister S K Bellubbi, who was persuaded by Yeddyurappa quit his ministerial post to accommodate JD(S) leader Umesh Katti in the cabinet after the latter joined BJP under ``Operation Lotus,’’ also made a brief appearance at the meeting at Renukacharya’s residence and quickly did the vanishing act perhaps to ``reserve’’ a berth for himself in the event of the change of guard in the state.
Incidentally, Sriramulu convened a separate meeting of the dissident ministers and legislators at his residence in the city, in which Janardhana Reddy and Karunakar Reddy as also ministers Balachandra Jarkiholi, Anand Asnotikar and Shivanagouda Naik participated.
As if to let the cat out of the bag regarding the real motive behind the meeting, former BJP union minister and expelled leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal attended the meeting and later said the Yeddyurappa ministry was paying the price for neglecting the leaders and people of north Karnataka in spite of the fact that the region had strongly supported the ruling party. ``A change of leadership in the state is inevitable if BJP has to survive,’’ he said strongly advocating the need for Shettar to present himself as an alternative .
The BJP legislators, including Renukacharya and Gopalakrishna Belur, and ministers Anand Asnotikar and Shivanagouda Naik and some other MLAs went to assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar’s residence in a bid to persuade him to take over the leadership of the dissidents in a bid to pressurise the party high command to effect a change of guard. The speaker, however, was noncommittal.
However, the failure of energy minister K S Eashwarappa, who had openly criticised Yeddyurappa in the run-up to the lok sabha elections, abstained from the meeting convened at the chief minister’s residence but separately met the speaker. Transport minister R Ashok, who has closely indentified himself with Yeddyurappa, also called on the speaker apparently to prevail upon the latter not to do anything to rock the boat.
Even as the political situation within the ruling party continues to be fluid, political grapevine has it that the chief minister is under tremendous pressure from his supporters to curb the clout of the Bellary mining lords and not to give in to their pressure tactics under any circumstances. The recent helicopter crash that killed Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S R Rajashekara Reddy, who was the biggest and powerful political supporter of the Reddys, and the refusal of the Congress high command to anoint Rajashekara Reddy’s son Jagan as the next chief minister is considered as the most opportune moment to firmly deal with the Bellary mining lords.