A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party senior MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal publicly stated that B.S. Yediyurappa’s tenure as Chief Minister is set to end soon, party State president Nalin Kumar Kateel clarified that there was no question of changing leadership and warned that action would be initiated against indiscipline.
“Mr. Yediyurappa will continue as Chief Minister for the next three years,” Mr. Kateel said in a tweet on Wednesday. He also declared: “We will go to the next poll under his leadership.”
However, questions have been raised on the why it took more than a day for the him to respond to Mr. Yatnal’s remarks that embarrassed Mr. Yediyurappa in the run-up to the byelections and the biennial elections to the Legislative Council. Also, Mr. Kateel did not take the name of Mr. Yatnal during the reference to disciplinary action.
Meanwhile, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa came out strongly in support of the Chief Minister and launched a straight attack on Mr. Yatnal and said he should be dismissed from the party without issuing a prior notice.
“Mr. Yatnal made a foolish statement. He is repeatedly issuing such statements and we will not value them. I appeal to our party State president to dismiss him from the party. There shouldn’t be any indiscipline in the party and we will take action against him,” Mr. Eshwarappa told media persons in Koppal.
“We recently held the BJP Legislature Party meeting and Mr. Yatnal participated in it. The Chief Minister asked all the MLAs to bring problems of their constituencies to his notice. But Mr. Yatnal was quiet in the meeting and later began making statements that the Chief Minister would soon be replaced. His statements might have made the Congress happy,” he said, asserting that “nobody can topple the present government”.
Though the Chief Minister was scheduled to visit Vijayapura district, from where Mr. Yatnal hails, on Wednesday as part of the aerial survey of flood-hit areas, it was cancelled due to inclement weather.
I’m following my conscience: Yatnal
BJP senior leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal responded through a tweet to the criticism of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s supporters that he was making statements with an eye on the chief ministerial post or ministerial post.
“As an elected representative, I am working as per my conscience for the development of Karnataka and also as the voice of people. I have not reached the level of falling at somebody’s feet or pleasing them to become Minister. That is not my attitude,” Mr. Yatnal said in the tweet.