S. A. Hemanth
Bengaluru, April 11: The clash between former chief minister B. S. Yediyurappa and BJP national general secretary B. L. Santhosh is the main cause for the delay in announcing the list of candidates by the BJP.
“There are serious differences of opinion on as many 99 candidates between Yediyurappa and Santhosh. Both are not meeting eye to eye. That is the main reason for the delay in the party announcing the list,” an office bearer, who is privy to the happenings, told The Newz Peg.
What is ominous and evident to this is the fact that miffed Yediyurappa returned to city from Delhi on Monday late night. “He was looking terribly upset and disturbed. He did not talk to anybody who went to receive him in the airport. He is angry,” a party leader added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and national President J. P. Nadda had four reports in front of them about the list of candidates from Karnataka in the Central Parliamentary Board meeting. While three reports – two from the Central Office and one from Yediyurappa’s assessment – more or less matched, the names provided by B. L. Santhosh were “off tangent”.
The party’s Central Leadership were aghast at “such a huge variance” in perception of the two important leaders of the state – Yediyurappa and Santhosh. Sources said that Amit Shah randomly picked up the names of certain candidates and posed questions to Santhosh to “defend and justify” his recommendation. Santhosh could not provide any ‘convincing and credible’ answer whereas Yediyurappa was ‘thorough with facts” as his recommendations were based on grass-root reality.
This made Modi and Amit Shah to postpone the Saturday evening meeting to Sunday morning which further got postponed to Monday. Meanwhile, only three leaders – Modi, Amit Shah and Nadda – were closeted for more than two hours to discuss the Karnataka imbroglio. The issue is likely to be resolved today (Tuesday) and the first list is expected either on Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon.
On his part, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai “tried to smile” in front of the camera but failed to conceal the tension. “Everything is OK. The list will come out in a day or two,” he told the media with a sheepish smile.
All is not well in the saffron party.
EOM
