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Karnataka BJP rebels, led by Basanagouda Patil Yatnal and Kumar Bangarappa, are seeking JP Nadda’s intervention to address leadership issues and challenge Congress in the state.
Karnataka BJP leader Kumar Bangarappa and nine others met at his residence to strategise their next steps. (Image: X)
There is trouble brewing in the Karnataka BJP, and the group leading the rebellion has now decided to look towards Delhi for a solution. The rebel faction, led by BJP leaders Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Kumar Bangarappa, and others, will meet the party’s national president JP Nadda on February 4 to address what they call a “major crisis.”
“We were called the rebel group, but now even the neutral members in the BJP have joined us, seeing us as the force that can unite the state unit. They see us as the new sunrise in the Karnataka BJP that can stop the ‘son-rise’ — someone who thinks the party is his family’s property,” Kumar Bangarappa told News18.
After a three-hour-long meeting to deliberate on resolving the growing dissent within the Karnataka BJP and rein in what they claim is an authoritarian leadership, Bangarappa and nine others met at his residence to strategise their next steps.
This faction believes they are the ones who can restore the confidence of party workers and strengthen the BJP, which suffered a crushing defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections, winning just 65 seats despite being in power for four years (2019-2023).
Bangarappa said their group has decided to seek the immediate intervention of the party high command and push for a leadership change to halt the BJP’s decline. “We have about a thousand days – roughly three years – before the next elections. Of this, 300 days will go into candidate selection, another 300 days into the election process, leaving us with just 300 days to prepare, prioritise, and perform. We must bring down the Congress, which is losing ground daily, and deal them an electoral defeat they cannot recover from,” said the former minister and four-time MLA from Soraba.
Taking a dig at the ruling Congress, where his own brother, Madhu Bangarappa, is a minister, the BJP leader said the state government is bankrupt and struggling with a major financial deficit. He accused the Congress of failing to generate revenue in any of its departments and saw this as a golden opportunity to expose its weaknesses and bring the BJP back to power.
“The BJP is a national party, not a regional one. It cannot be about one individual who thinks he alone can call the shots. The BJP is not like regional parties in India, where political families dominate. He (referring to BY Vijayendra) thinks the BJP should be run solely by his family, which is neither possible nor acceptable,” he said, adding that both senior and junior leaders must be taken into confidence and work as a team. “That’s why we have all decided to consolidate, stick together, and set things right,” Bangarappa said.
This faction believes they will get a fair hearing from the party high command, claiming to have successfully campaigned against the Waqf issue in Karnataka. Bangarappa pointed out that a JPC has passed a bill based on their efforts, and that Team Yatnal has been credited by the top leadership for working towards justice for those who lost land to the Waqf Board.
When asked whether Yatnal would contest against Vijayendra for the BJP state president’s post, Bangarappa said they would leave the decision to the party high command. “It needs to be done with consensus, and they will decide,” he said.
- Location :
Bangalore, India, India
