BENGALURU: Arch-rivals
CM BS Yediyurappa and his predecessor
HD Kumaraswamy held a closed-door meeting on Friday, triggering speculation of a possible political realignment in the state.
The two held a closed-door meeting for around 20 minutes at the CM’s home-office, ‘Krishna’. It is not clear what transpired but sources said the CM asked officers and senior ministers to leave before the one-on-one meeting.
The JD(S) leader and BJP ministers denied any political issues were discussed. “We talked about the havoc caused by rains in the Dasarahalli constituency represented by our party MLA Manjunath...” Kumaraswamy said.
The meeting, however, has assumed significance as it has come at a time when political circles are abuzz with talk of a “top to bottom” revamp by the central BJP leadership in
Karnataka in December after the Bihar polls. Murmurs have also been going on for a while about a possible merger of JD(S) into BJP.
Deputy CM: No talks about change of guardThere is a lot more to it than meets the eye. If it was only about release of funds, there was no need for Kumaraswamy to personally meet the CM,” said a BJP functionary. Murmurs have been going on for a while about a possible JDS-BJP merger as well. Sources said the BJP brass has already sent feelers to a top JD(S) functionary. The proposal is part of the party’s larger plan to consolidate votes from the two dominant communities — Lingayats and Vokkaligas.
As of now, majority Lingayats are with BJP while JD(S) has been the favourite of Vokkaligas. BJP has been trying to make inroads into the Vokkaliga-dominated Old Mysuru region and has met with little success so far. On the other hand, sources said the BJP high command is unhappy with Yediyurappa’s style of functioning, especially on the response to the Covid crisis, and is mulling a leadership change to improve the party's prospects in Karnataka.
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BJP ministers CN Ashwath Narayan and CT Ravi dismissed such reports and said Yediyurappa will complete his tenure. “No talks are being held in the party on change of leadership in Karnataka. Opposition leaders and MLAs meeting the CM is a common thing and today’s meeting was one such. No one one should attach political importance to it,” said Narayan.