Differences between the Bharatiya Janata Party State president B.S. Yeddyurappa and senior leader K.S. Eshwarappa have now cast a shadow on the newly-formed apolitical forum, Sangolli Rayanna Brigade, mentored by the latter.
The Central leadership is learnt to have advised Mr. Eshwarappa to “gradually withdraw” from the initiative of organising backward classes and Dalits through a non-political forum and instead help the party organisation itself to take up such activities.
According to highly placed sources, this message was given by BJP national organising general secretary Ram Lal before winding up his visit to the State. The Central leadership is believed to be of the view that it would be better to bridge the gap between the party and the brigade.
The Yeddyurappa-camp had been opposing the idea of Mr. Eshwarappa mentoring a non-political forum, which was being claimed by its organisers as an attempt to woo the backward classes away from the Congress.
The issue did not come up for discussion at the party’s highest decision-making body of the core committee held in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Interestingly, soon after the core committee meeting, the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade’s media managers sent out a message that the brigade would go ahead with a meeting scheduled in Tumakuru on October 8.
Mr. Ram Lal tried to patch up the differences between Mr. Yeddyurappa and Mr. Eshwarappa by holding a marathon one-on-one meeting with them. On Thursday morning, Mr. Yeddyurappa even hosted breakfast for prominent leaders, including Mr. Eshwarappa, at his residence and personally served them.
After the core committee meeting, Mr. Yeddyurappa told reporters that Mr. Ram Lal had given a clear message to the party State unit to maintain unity and work towards achieving the goal of winning 150 Assembly seats in the next elections.
Party State general secretary Arvind Limbavali said the core committee decided to hold the next State executive in Kalaburagi on January 19 and 20. Meanwhile, retired IAS officer C. Somashekhar joined the BJP on Thursday.
