A mystery “CD” has become the hot topic in Karnataka’s political circles with BJP lawmakers miffed over being ignored for ministerial berths and also the Opposition accusing chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa of being stung by a video clip on an unspecified questionable deed.

While the allegation was raked up by the chief minister’s arch rivals in the party, Basangouda Patil Yatnal and A.H. Vishwanath, after realising that their names were missing from the list of seven lawmakers inducted into the cabinet on Wednesday, the CD allegation has since gathered momentum.

The so-called “CD” could well be a euphemism for a secretly recorded audio or video clip that was now being purportedly used to blackmail Yediyurappa.

Neither Yatnal not Vishwanath has revealed what exactly was the CD all about. But some Opposition sources claimed that there were a few “video clips” on some illegal financial transactions that could put Yediyurappa on a sticky wicket.

Yatnal claimed that Yediyurappa’s grandchildren had clandestinely recorded his “ill-deeds”.

“These recordings have fallen into the hands of some Congress leaders and some of our own lawmakers,” he told reporters.

Asked if he had any of the recordings, Yatnal quipped: “I would be deputy chief minister if I had.”

Yatnal had earlier demanded the chief minister’s resignation after Karnataka High Court last week dismissed Yediyurappa’s plea to quash criminal proceedings against him in a land scam and instead slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on him.

Vishwanath had questioned some of the choices for ministerial assignments and wondered if Yediyurappa was being blackmailed.

Neither Yediyurappa nor the BJP’s top leadership has uttered a word on the allegations swirling around the “CD”.

Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar said the BJP should be called “Blackmailers’ Janata Party” based on what its own lawmakers have alleged.

“I was not taken seriously when I said a CD was behind the suicide attempt by his (Yediyurappa’s) aide some time ago. But even their own party leaders are saying the same thing now,” Shivakumar told reporters.

The chief minister’s political aide, N.R. Santosh, had allegedly attempted suicide in November 2020, but later claimed he had accidentally swallowed some tablets without realising they were sleeping pills.

Santosh had played a key role in destabilising the Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy in 2019 by luring 17 lawmakers to the BJP.