Amid the raging pandemic, the Bharatiya Janata Party has ruled out any change of guard in Karnataka, one of the worst hit states. Fresh rumours were fuelled after Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra rushed to Delhi on May 7 to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. BJP organising secretary BL Santosh also met Yediurappa on Tuesday. Notably, Bommai is seen as a successor of Yediyurappa. He, however, has denied that there was any political motive behind his meeting with Shah. He said that there is no question of thinking about anything else as the state is fighting Covid-19.
Yediyurappa also said that the meeting with Santosh was to discuss the coronavirus situation as the latter informed the CM that all the help needed from Delhi will be provided.
There have been talks of replacing Yediyurappa for a while now. With Yediyurappa, 78, already above the saffron party’s unspoken age limit of 75, talks of his replacement have steadily grown louder. The BJP had hinted two months ago that Yediyurappa might be replaced after the results of the Assembly polls on May 2. While Yediyurappa is said to have favoured Bommai for the CM post with his younger son being given a governance role, the central leadership is reported to have favoured Union minister Pralhad Joshi. Notably, Yediyurappa’s functioning and several decisions have received criticism with senior state minister K S Eshwarappa writing a letter to the Governor and BJP central leadership against the CM.
Yediyurappa’s April 26 decision to sell 3,667 acres in the Bellary region to steel major JSW Steel has also received flak even from the party members. The BJP, itself, had been opposing the move when it was in opposition. The land was given to the JSW at the 2005 prices of Rs 1.2 lakh per acre rather than the estimated current market rate of Rs 1 crore.
BJP’s district in-charge minister for Bellary Anand Singh has questioned the deal pointing out that Yediyurappa was part of the protest against the deal when the Congress-JD(S) was in government. Bommai has defended the deal saying that the sale was as per agreements signed in 2006 and 2007, and was given the go-ahead after legal hurdles ended in January this year.
