Bury hatchet with CM, ministers told

A day after the panchayat and taluk elections were announced in Karnataka, the chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nitin Gadkari has asked the state cabinet ministers to bury their differences with chief minister B S Yeddyurappa for now.

Members of the Karnataka cabinet said Nitin Gadkari, along with state in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan had met all the ministers and important state leaders on Tuesday morning and asked them to come together to perform well in the elections.

“The idea of the meet was that we should all keep aside our differences for the next one month and concentrate on the upcoming elections. These elections have now become a matter of prestige for the BJP because if the party does well, it would mean the people still support us. But, if we do miserably then it could indicate we have lost our support to the Congress and JD(S) at the grassroots because of the recent corruption charges against the government,” said a cabinet minister of Karnataka.

Due to the tussle between Yeddyurappa, BJP’s central leadership and state members, the core group of the BJP has decided to tighten the noose around the chief minister and has appointed Arun Jaitley to end the factionalism in the state.

Senior Karnataka BJP members elaborated that of the 30 districts in the state, the party could do well in 18-20 districts, especially in northern Karnataka which is dominated by the Lingayat community, a stronghold of Yeddyurappa. “The main battle in the panchayat and taluk elecations would be between the Congress and BJP. The JD(S) has only a couple of strongholds,” the minister added.

The main support base of the BJP is the Lingayat community which makes up 16 per cent of the population in the state. Another caste that could vote in favour of Yeddyurappa is the Brahmin community that makes up 3.5 per cent of the state’s population. BJP insiders claimed that Yeddyurappa has also managed to win a considerable vote share among the other backward classes (OBC) that make up 33 per cent of the voters.

“In the morning Nitin Gadkari first met the chief minister and then met all the ministers. In the evening, he will meet all the MLAs and MLCs. We believe the BJP could also do well in some pockets of south Karnataka where OBCs are dominant,” added the Karnataka minister.

Sources in the BJP said the communities among which BJP is weak are the Vokkaligas with 12.5 per cent, minorities with about 11 per cent voters and a section of SC/ST voters who are supporters of the JD(S) and Congress.