Rebels BJP leaders meet Nadda and Santhosh; Yatnal offers to contest State presidential polls if a Lingayat is preferred

Rebel BJP leaders, who are camping in Delhi, on Tuesday met Central leaders in different groups to air their complaints against party State president B.Y. Vijayendra.

Rebel BJP leaders, who are camping in Delhi, on Tuesday met Central leaders in different groups to air their complaints against party State president B.Y. Vijayendra.

While Ramesh Jarkiholi met BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Monday night, another rebel leader Kumar Bangarappa met party national general secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh on Tuesday.

“We have tried to convince them about our demand on replacing Mr. Vijayendra. We will abide by whatever decision is taken by the party high command,” Mr. Jarkiholi told mediapersons in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

The rebels have been publicly accusing Mr. Vijayendra of indulging in “compromise politics” by being hand in glove with Congress leaders. They have also accused him of being autocratic and making unilateral decisions

Meanwhile, prominent rebel leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who is set to join other rebels in Delhi told mediapersons in Kalaburagi that he was willing to contest for the post of BJP State president against Mr. Vijayendra if everyone felt that a Lingayat should become the next president. He said the rebel group would field a consensus candidate.

Maintaining that everything would be fine in the party within three days if Mr. Vijayendra quit, he said the party Central leaders had given appointments to them to air their views.

Mr. Yatnal said the issues of Hindutva, dynasty politics and corruption would be the main agenda for discussion with the Central leaders. “The Central leaders have to answer our questions about these issues. They speak against dynastic politics at the Centre, but appoint veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa’s son as the president of the party state unit. If that is the case, they should not speak about dynastic politics and Hindutva,” he said.