Infighting in Karnataka BJP comes to the fore as meetings see ruckus in Vijayapura, Bagalkot

BJP party workers’ meetings, held back to back in Vijayapura and Bagalkot on Monday, were disrupted due to the loud arguments between factions led by various leaders, exposing differences within the State unit of the party after the Assembly poll debacle.

BJP party workers’ meetings, held back to back in Vijayapura and Bagalkot on Monday, were disrupted due to the loud arguments between factions led by various leaders, exposing differences within the State unit of the party after the Assembly poll debacle.

BJP is organising district-level party workers’ meetings in which Ministers and State-level party office bearers are meant to speak about the achievements of the nine-year rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The differences came to the fore in Monday’s two such meetings in North Karnataka.

In Vijayapura, the meeting saw heated exchanges between supporters of former Minister Murugesh Nirani and MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal. Ruckus was created when former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was called to inaugurate the programme. Some supporters of Mr. Yatnal rushed to the podium and stopped the inauguration of the meeting till their leader arrived at the venue. They said that he was the only BJP MLA from Vijayapura and there was no meaning in starting the event without him.

They alleged that some BJP leaders had “betrayed” Mr. Yatnal and that such people needed to be disciplined by the party. “But instead, they were being felicitated while Mr. Yatnal was being sidelined.”

Some raised slogans against leaders like Mr. Murugesh Nirani and Hanumanth Nirani, MLC, Arun Shahapur former MLC and Ramesh Jigajinagi, MP.

This upset Mr. Jigajinagi, former MLAs Aminappagouda S. Patil Nadahalli, and the Nirani brothers who walked out of the hall. Leaders like Mr. Bommai, Anna Saheb Jolle, MP, and his wife and MLA Shashikala Jolle, Abhay Patil, MLA, former MLA Ramesh Bhusnur, and others who were on the stage, did not try to stop them.

Mr. Yatnal who arrived late, addressed the gathering and said that BJP was defeated by some of its own leaders and not others.