The factional feud within the Karnataka BJP has once again come to the fore, with the rebel faction led by Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal announcing a separate month-long campaign against the Waqf board issuing notices staking claim to farmers' land, while the state BJP has formed three study teams to tour the state.
Last time, the rebel team comprising Yatnal, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Arvind Limbavali, Kumar Bangarappa, G.M. Siddeshwar, Pratap Simha, Annasaheb Jolle and B.P. Harish, had openly revolted against state BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra, and some of them had skipped the “Mysore Chalo Padayatra” (march) jointly organised by the BJP and the JD(S) demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the MUDA land allotment scam. Subsequently, the rebels, hoping to assert their leadership within the party, had announced a separate ‘padayatra’ from Koodala Sangama to Ballari against the Congress government embroiled in the multi-crore Valmiki Corporation illegal fund diversion scam. However, the plan was cancelled after the party high command intervened.
This time, the rebels, who held a closed-door meeting at Kumar Bangarappa’s residence, announced the month-long “Waqf Jagriti Abhiyan” in six districts – Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Belagavi, starting on November 25. Vijayendra chose to downplay the open revolt and plunged into damage control mode. Within hours of the announcement by the rebels in Mysuru, the state BJP head office in Bengaluru announced three teams headed by Vijayendra, LOPs R. Ashok and Chalavadi Narayanaswamy to run the state-wide “Namma Bhoomi, Namma Hakku” (Our land, our right) campaign against the Waqf notices and submit a report to the party high command.
“We have the support of the central leadership on the Waqf issue and the JPC had visited Vijayapura during our indefinite strike, which was attended by Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, too. The prime minister and home minister have brought the Waqf bill for amendment to Parliament. And we will go ahead with the campaign as this is BJP’s official programme,” said Yatnal.
Jarkiholi, who had declined to campaign for the recent bypolls in the state, saying he would abstain from all events and campaigns being held under Vijayendra’s leadership, said anyone who accepts Yatnal’s leadership was free to join the Waqf campaign.
Vijayendra chose not to take Jarkiholi’s bait and said, “The party has held discussion on Waqf issue and decided to organise protest in two phases. First, we intend to hold a farmers’ protest in Belagavi during the winter session of the Karnataka legislature session, where we hope to mobilise 45,000 farmers. The next phase will involve the three study teams touring the state.”
Interestingly, the rebels who wanted to lead the campaigns in north Karnataka to establish their leadership have been tactfully made part of teams that will tour districts outside their home turfs. Jarkiholi, who is from Belagavi in Kittur Karnataka region, is made part of Vijayendra’s team, which will be touring Kalyan Karnataka region (Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Gadag, Vijayapura and Bagalkot), while Yatnal, a leader from Kalyan Karnataka is made part of Ashok’s team that will tour the Old Mysuru and coastal districts (Mysurur, Chamrajnagar, Hasssan, Mandya, Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikmagalur and Shimoga). Narayanaswamy’s team will tour the remaining districts.
The cold war between Vijayendra and Yatnal is no longer a secret as the latter was excluded from the star campaigners’ list for the bypolls and his name was added to the BJP ’s fact-finding committee on Waqf headed by Govind Karjol as an afterthought. However, Yatnal chose to skip the committee’s tour programme and sat on an indefinite strike at Vijayapura, along with Karandlaje and ended the sit-in protest only after Jagadambika Pal, chief of Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf, visited Vijayapura to meet the aggrieved farmers.
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“The fact-finding committee is Vijayendra’s team and I am boycotting it,” Yatnal had reasoned.
A vocal critic of BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa and his son Vijayendra, Yatnal, like many senior leaders, feel betrayed over the party high command choosing Vijayendra to lead the party. Despite the efforts to unite the two warring groups to take on the ruling party engulfed in newer scams each day, the party leadership has found no success. The saffron party in Karnataka is going through a fierce power tussle much as the ruling Congress is torn between the chief minister, his deputy and a host of CM aspirants.