Shikaripura protests BS Yediyurappa's exit

SHIVAMOGGA/ MANDYA: Within minutes of chief minister BS Yediyurappa announcing his resignation on Monday, commercial establishments in Shikaripura of Shivamogga district closed down and observed a bandh in protest.
Upset with the BJP high command, residents raised slogans against the party leaders, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Though Yediyurappa had submitted his resignation on earlier occasions, this is for the first time that residents observed a bandh in protest.
Shikaripura has elected Yediyurappa seven times and is his ‘karmabhoomi’.
Villagers in Yediyurappa’s birthplace of Bookanakere in KR Pet taluk, Mandya district were also dejected. The villagers closed all the temples in protest and vented their anger against BJP functiioaries. They saw it as injustice meted out to Yediyurappa by his party colleagues.
“The party will pay dearly for the mistake,” said the villagers. “He was unceremoniously asked to step down by BJP leaders and we condemn it,” said Madhu, nephew of Yediyurappa.
Journey from the 60s
DH Subbanna, elder brother of former legislative chairman DH Shankaramurthy in Shivamogga said he brought Yediyurappa to Shikaripura from Bengaluru in the 60s where he was working in the RSS.
“Yediyurappa struggled to build the party from his Jana Sangh days,” he recalled.
“RSS leaders usually keep away from politics, but Yediyurappa made his mark as a politician,” he noted.
(With inputs from Udaya Kumar)