Two senior BJP leaders demanding reinstatement in the cabinet have put Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in a fix as the party’s national leadership is said to be non-committal on a ministerial expansion with just four months to go for the Assembly elections.
K.S. Eshwarappa and Ramesh Jarkiholi, both of whom were forced to resign a year apart over allegations of corruption and a sex scandal, respectively, have been posing a major challenge to the party and the chief minister.
Cleared by police of any wrongdoing for want of sufficient evidence, both leaders have been holding meetings among their loyalists to put pressure on Bommai.
While Bommai met Amit Shah, BJP national president J.P. Nadda and others in Delhi on Monday, party sources in Bangalore said the central leaders were not keen on a cabinet expansion due to fears that it could spark a wave of dissidence by disgruntled leaders who were hitherto ignored for ministerial berths.
But spurning Eshwarappa, a senior backward class leader, and Jarkiholi, who enjoys considerable influence among his Dalit community, could hurt the BJP in a dozen constituencies.
In what could be a tightly contested election between a divided BJP, the Congress that has its own factions and the Janata Dal Secular, a dozen seats would mean a lot, reminded a BJP functionary.
It needed much cajoling from Bommai to bring back the two leaders who stayed away from the Assembly session as a protest last week.
Jarkiholi was forced to resign as water resources minister in March 2021 over a sex video tape, while Eshwarappa had to quit as rural development minister in April 2022 after a contractor died by suicide accusing him of demanding bribes to clear his payment.
Another challenge for the ruling BJP in the poll-bound state is the formation of a new party by its former minister Janardhana Reddy.
The mining baron on Sunday formed the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha and decided to contest from Gangavati in Koppal district, held by the BJP. But his brother and former BJP MLA Karunakara Reddy and close friend B. Sriramulu, who is the current transport minister, have distanced themselves from Janardhana.
Sriramulu rejected fears that Janardhana’s party would split BJP votes.