Even though it was stated that no action would be taken against the senior leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi, they say that the retaliation had already begun, reports Aditi Phadnis
B S Yeddyurappa, who resigned as Karnataka's chief minister on Sunday, said in Bengaluru that one would have to wait for two days more to find out who the next CM would be.
It seems that the Bhartiya Janata Party leadership is at odds on whether to ask Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddurappa to let go of his post, or let him continue following serious allegations of corruption by the Lokayukta.=
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The latest salvo by Governor HR Bhardwaj recommending President's rule in Karnataka has left the state Bharatiya Janata Party speechless. Although they have resolved to battle the issue out till the very end, they continue to say that they have been taken aback and the action of the governor is unbecoming.
Addressing BJP workers at a felicitation function after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in Bihar elections and various bypolls, he asserted that the only mantra for his party's victory was 'Sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' and also launched a veiled attack on the West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, saying those who cannot challenge the saffron party democratically have resorted to 'murdering' its workers to realise their goals.
The move to bring back former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa into Bharatiya Janata Party is gathering pace with a section of the party strongly pushing for it on the ground that it would boost their prospects in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
'The BJP had no traction in Karnataka and Siddaramaiah would have scraped through if he had not done all that he did.' 'When you pander to one community, the other community gets irritated.' 'Then, when you make fun of the cow and the treating of the cow as sacred, in your effort to belittle the Sangh Parivar and its obscurantism, you are hurting your normal voters too.' 'It is okay to make fun of the Sangh Parivar, but it is not okay to make fun of all Hindus.'
A six-time member of Parliament, Kumar had climbed the political ladder steadily from being an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker to be the Union minister in his thirties.
The chief minister said he has certain compulsions as a politician.
Former chief minister of Goa and Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro, resigned as an MLA and a primary member of the party on Monday claiming the state party unit is run by a 'coterie' of leaders even as he praised Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee saying the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While the DMK fears that the Congress with its poor strike rate will pull it down in the 2021 state elections, like it did five years ago, the ruling AIADMK is worried that the BJP may ultimately do a Bihar on it, relegating it to second place in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
Bharatiya Janata Party sources said they would have preferred the elections to be held in the month of February itself as the electoral swing is in favour of the party at the moment. Holding elections in April will mean that the sympathy factor in favour of the BJP will die down. The Congress, however, is aware of this fact and hence would want to push elections till April.
Modi said that the JD-S was going to finish a "poor, distant third".
BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who met with the warring factions on Thursday, said the party was confident that the crisis will be resolved soon. He, however, ruled out any leadership change in the Karnataka. In short, B S Yeddyurappa's chief minister seat is secure for now.
Crisis in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party continued on Tuesday with dissidents remaining firm on their demand for the removal of Chief Minister B S Yuddyurappa.The dissenting Reddy brothers, Janardhan and Somashekhar, made it clear that they will not backtrack from their demand for the Karnataka CM's ouster.Janardhan Reddy, who is meeting with the BJP's top leadership in Delhi, said that he had met senior leader Sushma Swaraj over the issue.
'The BJP was looking at one or two disgruntled guys to see whether it can destabilise the government.' 'When the BJP does not win a state, it uses these back hand methods.'
Kumaraswamy had proved right the adage that politics is the art of the possible, but the science graduate failed to get his chemistry right in keeping the coalition legislators together to ensure his government's longevity.
Kerala Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, and Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy lent support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government's fight with the Centre.
Kapil Sibal, a prominent member of the Congress's group of 23 leaders who wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul last year, on Thursday slammed fellow letter signatory Jitin Prasada for crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party and said it represented politics of "prasada" or personal gains.
Representatives of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday met senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in New Delhi and claimed they had been assured that he will not be removed in the wake of dissidence in the state unit.
'The strange thing about the Karnataka election is that the BJP looks more like the Congress of the past and vice versa.' 'Siddaramaiah has been able to out think the BJP almost every single day on every single issue.'
'The party dropped me as a spokesperson for showing a roadmap. It shows that the party either has a high level of arrogance or they are completely detached from ground realities.'
He also said the whole world knew that the BJP alone knows how to run the nation.
At a video conference with chief ministers and representatives of these 10 states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Modi said the recovery rate has gone up which, he added, meant that government efforts have proved to be effective.
Karunakar Reddy, one of the members of the anti-Yeddyurappa faction, told media-persons on Friday that he, along with others, has been invited to New Delhi for talks. He said the central leadership had asked them to be in Delhi on Saturday to resolve the issue
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for the "ill-treatment" meted out to him, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Friday charged party President Nitin Gadkari with failing to keep his promises.
As election campaigns across Karnataka draw to a close, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress are fine-tuning their last-minute strategies. The BJP is banking heavily on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to add glitter to its campaign while the Congress is setting up teams to douse the dissidence and motivate grass-root level workers.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal: 'I hope the Congress governments and other states like West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana will support our effort to bring petrol and diesel into the GST regime.'
With the Bharatiya Janata Party needling it on the issue of naming chief ministerial candidate, Congress on Monday said it was its strategy not to declare its choice for the post in the run-up to the May five in Karnataka Assembly polls in which it hopes to come back to power.
Seeking to defend its leadership from the attack by its veterans, the BJP said the "healthy precedent" of collective responsibility for poll defeats was set by Vajpayee and Advani.
The reshuffle is likely to take place after the ongoing Budget session ends on April 12, reports Archis Mohan.
Moily asserted that Gandhi continues to be the AICC president and he has not stepped down.
He said, according to the party constitution, a 3-member enquiry committee would be set up, which after going through their (suspended MLAs) replies to the notice.
Many leaders from non-Hindi states, especially Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, had opposed the policy.
The Congress said it will observe 'Save Democracy Day' on Friday with party workers and leaders holding protest marches at all district and state headquarters.
Former Karnataka chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday said he was not an aspirant for the state party unit president post.
The speaker said he would take a decision on the remaining 14 cases in a "couple of days."
