BJP rift in open, MP Jigajinagi slams CM

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT 

Congressmen have been criticising the ruling BJP for non-performance but now, even a senior MP of the ruling party has trained his guns on the BJP and has made caustic remarks against party leaders.

Vijayapura City BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal has been slamming senior party leaders and did not spare even Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor B.S.Yediyurappa on the issue of giving reservation to the Panchamasali community.

Now, it is the turn of Vijayapura BJP MP Ramesh Jigajinagi to target the government with his remark that the BJP would not have come to power if the Janata Pariwar had remained intact. The former union minister also lamented that nothing is happening in the state government.

Let alone taking new decisions, the government is not functioning properly. He has stayed away from the government as not even minor works are happening. In total, the Bommai government has not been functioning properly, he said.  “You know there are ‘chota’, and ‘mota’ (petty leaders) who ask about my contribution to the BJP.

They will question my contribution despite me bringing Rs one lakh crore to Vijayapura district. This shows their pettiness. After the death of former CM Ramakrishna Hegde, I was the first leader to join the BJP. At that time,e Dalits condemned me for joining the BJP which according to them is a casteist party.

Despite all these happenings, I still joined the BJP. In those days, I was a very important leader and grew under Ramakrishna Hegde and J.H. Patel. Had I joined the Janata Pariwar of H.D.Deve Gowda, do you think the BJP would have come to power? I am one of the important members responsible for the BJP to come to power”.

Jigajinagi said when Hegde and Patel were alive, B.S.Yediyurappa, H.N.Ananth Kumar, D.V.Sadananda Gowda, and backward class leaders of Shivamogga had toured the entire state. Why did the BJP not come to power then? The party came to power only in 2004 after all of them joined its ranks, he added