BJP’s worst mutiny continues even after Shettar outburst

This is the first time the BJP, known for its covert operations to poach legislators from other parties, is facing so many resignations

Hyderabad: All is not well within the Bharatiya Janata Party. In fact, how can anything be right in a party that is facing one of its worst mutinies, that too in a region where it has desperately been trying to gain a foothold?

If the headlines for the entire dissidence story were the damaging statements from two of its senior most members, former J&K Governor Satyapal Malik and former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, the story just got bigger with the mass exodus from the party in Karnataka.

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The exodus, still on after the latest candidate list, has so far seen big names, right from Mudigere MLA MP Kumaraswamy, Haveri MLA Nehru Olekar, Minister and 6-time MLA S Angara, MLC R Shankar and MLC Ayanur Manjunath to former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, former Minister Shashikant Naik and prominent leader from Tumakuru, Sogadu Shivanna, among 10 sitting legislators quitting the party after they were denied tickets. Some have joined rival parties Congress and the Janata Dal.

This is the first time the BJP, known for its covert operations to poach legislators from other parties, is facing so many resignations, that too in Karnataka, the only South Indian State where it managed to form a government.

That is not all. After Malik’s revelations in an interview with Karan Thapar exposed how Narendra Modi and Ajit Doval allegedly exploited the Pulwama attack for the BJP’s electoral gains in 2019, Shettar’s charges turned the floodlights on another big name in the BJP, that of National General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh.

Six-time MLA Shettar went all out against Santhosh, accusing him of dirty politics and conspiring against him, something no one inside BJP has dared to do so far.

According to Shettar’s allegations, Santhosh, Bommai and union Minister Pralhad Joshi were behind the BJP’s candidate lists, with indications that they had used the induction of around 70 new faces to sideline Shettar so that he would not be in the race for chief ministership.

Shettar also said Santhosh was operating affairs of the party keeping Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the dark and that he was ruining the BJP.

Santhosh was also one of the key names in the MLA poaching case in Telangana, another operation that backfired on the BJP.

“BL Santhosh was given charge of Kerala and he did not even win a single seat. He was made in-charge of Tamil Nadu. The BJP only won a few seats. He was in-charge of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. See the condition of the party there. A person who failed in these States is giving advice to number one and two of the party,” Shettar had said, indicating that it was not just the Karnataka unit of the BJP that was facing tough times, with Santhosh yet to make any considerable breakthrough in BJP’s Mission South.

The big question in political corridors now is after Malik and Shettar, who will be the next to expose the machinations and rumblings in the BJP, and more importantly, how BL Santhosh will manage the crisis.