D.K. Shivakumar, Minister for Water Resources, said the BJP Central leadership will sideline its State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa after the Lok Sabha election.

“The senior leaders are being eased out by the BJP Central leadership. After the Lok Sabha election, the party will ditch Mr. Yeddyurappa also,” he told presspersons here on Sunday.

He said though Mr. Yeddyurappa was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014, he was not made a Union Minister. Expressing regret for the denial of ticket to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar to contest from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat, he said that this was an example of the way in which the BJP was treating the families of some leaders. As Ms. Kumar was also involved in social service activities, the party should have provided her an opportunity to contest the election, he said.

Regarding the recent raids conducted by I-T officials in Karnataka, he said that the BJP that is in power at the Centre was misusing Central agencies including the I-T Department to fulfil its political ends. Such raids were conducted even during the Assembly election in 2018. He questioned the reason behind not conducting raids on the premises of any BJP leader or businesspersons who support the party.