Unravelling how much some politicians in the BJP stand for Hinduism and Hindus, senior leader of the party KS Eshwarappa on Tuesday slammed the party for marginalising leaders for whom Hindutva was a matter of conviction. Justifying his choice to run as an independent candidate from Shivamogga in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, he said, “The Karnataka BJP is in control of one family, and we are protesting against this. All those people who are talking about Hindutva have been sidelined. Whether it is CT Ravi, Pratap Simha, Basangouda Patil Yatnal, Sadananda Gowda, or anyone else, those who speak about Hindutva are being sidelined.”
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“They are all leaders, who have done a lot of work for the party,” Eshwarappa, who served as deputy chief minister in the previous BJP government, told the news agency PTI.
Why Eshwarappa rebelled
Seventy-five-year-old Eshwarappa has initiated a rebellion following the BJP’s decision to not grant an election nomination to his son KE Kantesh for the Haveri constituency. The party has instead chosen former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai as their candidate for this seat.
Eshwarappa, who stepped down as deputy chief minister in 2022, following allegations of abetment of suicide of a contractor, accused former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa of deceiving his family by denying a ticket to his son. According to Eshwarappa, Yediyurappa had made a promise that his son, KE Kantesh, would receive the BJP ticket from Haveri. Trusting Yediyurappa’s words, Kantesh focused his efforts on Haveri to gain the people’s confidence. However, in the end, his son was denied the ticket, leading him to believe that Yediyurappa had betrayed them.
Eshwarappa chose not to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Shivamogga on Monday. The BJP has nominated Yediyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra, the current MP from the constituency.
Yediyurappa refuted the allegation, stating that candidates are selected by the party’s central election committee and he was not involved in the decision.
Eshwarappa declared that in the event of his victory in two months, his supporters would join him at the feet of his mother, the BJP, whether the party served a show-cause notice to him or expelled him.
