Puttur: BJP in Jitters as Ram Bhat Jumps into Loksabha Fray
Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Mar 10: Urimajal Ram Bhat, founder of Swabhimani Vedike, who had a few weeks ago announced that the Swabhimani Vedike has been merged with the BJP and that misunderstandings between the two sides have been sorted out, let out a war cry on Monday March 9 by saying that the Vedike will contest the Loksabha election on its own, from the Mangalore Loksabha constituency. Bhat, who was elected as Puttur MLA in the past, is disgruntled with the attitude of the BJP leaders and accordingly, announced that he would be entering the election fray from Mangalore as the Swabhimani Vedike candidate.
Speaking to reporters at Puttur on Monday March 9, Bhat said the BJP has committed a blunder yet again without learning from the past mistakes, in selecting its Loksabha candidate. He expressed his ire at the fact that Nalin Kumar Kateel, whose name was not proposed by any of the assembly constituencies coming under Mangalore constituency, has been suddenly propped up and imposed as a consensus candidate overnight. The BJP, which is being controlled by the Rashreeya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has been committing such mistakes often, he said.
"The Vedike cannot accept the authoritarian attitude being displayed by a RSS leader in taking political decisions for the BJP, which is a political party having its own ideologies and principles. Unless the BJP respects the internal democratic mechanism and learns to give weightage to the opinions of its workers, the Vedike will not budge from its confrontational stand," Bhat clarified.
Bhat also announced that the Vedike has decided not to continue with the dialogue process with the BJP, as the party has failed to implement the decisions mutually arrived at during the discussions held in the past. "There has been pressure from workers in Udupi constituency too, to field a candidate from that constituency. We will examine this demand. There are chances of the doors for the dialogue getting opened up again, if the BJP is prepared to put a candidate suggested by the Vedike from Mangalore," he explained.
"During the discussions I had with the RSS leaders, it had agreed to prevail upon the BJP to implement certain suggestions given by us. Later, BJP state president D V Sadanand Gowda and state home minister Dr V S Acharya came to my home and gave their assent to certain formulae that were placed before them. None of these have been implemented by the BJP," he alleged. It may be recalled that the BJP had agreed to reinstate Banari Gopalakrishna Bhat, who had been removed from the presidentship of APMC Puttur for siding with the Vedike, as the APMC president again, besides giving prominent postings to the Vedike leaders in the BJP.
To a question, Bhat chose to distance himself from the notion that this was a personal feud between himself and his brother-in-law and RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, who is supposed to have a stronghold on the affairs of the district BJP. "It would be wrong to conclude that the Vedike and the BJP will come together if I and my brother-in-law sink our differences. The current situation has arisen out of differences of opinion on political issues and principles and not of dispute between close relatives. I have not taken the decision out of personal anger and I keep personal life away from public life. I abhor the BJP's attitude of meekly succumbing to the diktats of outside personalities in all issues," he stated.
Bhat, who decided to form the splinter group by splitting the local BJP last year, after his close aide and the then MLA Shakuntala Shetty was denied the assembly ticket supposedly at the behest of Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and Sadanand Gowda, lashed out at the increasing clout of the RSS in the BJP administration. Zilla panchayat former president K Balakrishna Borkar, ex-MLA K Shakuntala Shetty, Vedike leader G K Mahabaleshwar Bhat and ex MLC Anna Vinaychandra were present at the press conference.
This decision is sure to send jitters down the spines of the BJP leaders, as the candidate the party has proposed to field from Mangalore is relatively new to national politics and is not considered to be a formidable candidate. The Vedike will surely bite into the BJP's share of votes, which will be to the advantage of the Congress candidate, it is being analyzed.
When the attention of the chief minister Yeddyurappa was drawn to the decision of the Vedike when he was about to leave Mangalore at the helipad, he said that the BJP has no threat from Swabhimani Vedike or any other party in Mangalore. "No one can stop the BJP from winning Mangalore Loksabha seat," he asserted. To another question, he said the party will initiate disciplinery action against party workers indulging in anti-party activities.
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