Bangalore: This is a compliment Sonia Gandhi
could have done without. Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday launched into praise for the Congress chief to put the BJP leadership on notice.
Yeddyurappa said that unlike BJP leaders who leave their colleagues to stew in their own juices when they are in trouble, the Congress chief stands by her comrades in a crisis. Speaking at a function organized by fellow Lingayats, the increasingly rebellious BJP strongman said, “I have to praise Sonia Gandhi. When she came to Tumkur, Congress leaders were seen united and supportive.”
Not stopping at this, he took a dig at his own party stating that in BJP, people would be waiting for a person to face some problem. BSY’s praise makes Cong, BJP squirm
Bangalore: “In our party, our leaders will be happy only after some kind of punishment is handed out, and that is the difference with Sonia Gandhi. In the BJP, people will be waiting for a person to face some problem and then put him down, and grab his position.”
The compliment must have left the Congress squirming as the party had cited alleged corruption on Yeddyurappa’s watch to mock BJP’s support for the antigraft campaign. It also underscored the growing anger of the Lingayat chieftain who helped BJP form its first government in the south, but who has increasingly been resentful of factional rivals in Karnataka and their backers in central leadership who, according to him, have tried to cash in on his legal troubles.
The public expression of disappointment reflects a clear hardening of Yeddyurappa’s stand for a leadership change in the state, which can complicate the BJP’s task to repair its house in Karnataka ahead of the coming electoral challenges.
The former chief minister, whose legal troubles were considerably compounded last week when the Supreme Court ordered a CBI inquiry into whether he allowed companies mining concessions in exchange for monetary favours for his relatives, has been pressing for an early meeting of the Karnataka legislature party to flaunt his support among MLAs and to show that chief minister Sadananda Gowda does not have the majority with him. Eight ministers belonging to the Yeddyurappa faction have resolved to quit as part of the pressure tactics .
No comments:
Post a Comment