B S Yediyurappa won’t be CM for long, next CM from north Karnataka: BJP MLA

Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. (Twitter/@BRPatil_BJP)

Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal claimed that BS Yediyurappa will not be Chief Minister for long and his successor will be from north Karnataka, and even Prime minister Narendra Modi is aware of this.

Speaking at an event on Monday evening, Yatnal, a senior BJP leader and MLA from Vijayapura said, “Yediyurappa will not be CM for long. Even those in high command are fed up with him. He is neglecting North Karnataka completely. Senior leaders in the BJP party are tired of Yediyurappa.”

Yatnal also said that Yediyurappa is not the CM of Karnataka, but only of his home district, Shivamogga. The BJP MLA’s remarks have lent further weight to speculation over the leadership change within the saffron party in Karnataka.

“Yediyurappa is completely neglecting North Karnataka region, BJP in the state comes to power, only because of north Karnataka districts which elect 100 MLAs. But the Chief Minister is chosen from south Karnataka which only sends 15 MLAs to the assembly,” Yatnal said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has given assurance that the next Chief Minister would be from the north Karnataka region, he added.

Yatnal, who also belongs to the Lingayat community like Yediyurappa, said that BJP came to power because of its support from in the Lingayat-dominated north Karnataka region in the 2018 assembly elections.

Rejecting the MLA’s claims, BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi said that Yatnal is known to make such outlandish statements.

Meanwhile, Senior Congress leader and leader of opposition in the Legislative assembly Siddaramaiah said that a few leaders in BJP are planning to remove Yediyurappa from the CM post. “But we will never try to topple the BJP government, we are ready to face elections if the BJP government toppled by itself,” Siddaramaiah said, reacting to the Yatnal’s statement.

Last month there was intense speculation over a change in leadership in Karnataka when Yediyurappa met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president J P Nadda and several Union Ministers in New Delhi.

Later on, the Karnataka BJP issued a statement saying the reports about Yediyurappa making way for another BJP leader were baseless and misleading.

State BJP spokesperson Captain Ganesh Karnik had said: “few media channels have repeatedly reported that there is going to be a change in the leadership of Yediyurappa, but BJP strongly refutes these reports.”

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