PK scouts for TMC mascot in Karnataka

M.B. Patil on Kishor’s radar; poll strategist’s meet with BSY, son creates flutter

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Political strategist Prashant Kishor flew into the IT capital on Friday on a ‘secret mission’ to poach senior Lingayat leader M.B. Patil from the Congress party, as part of continuing efforts to poach key leaders from various parties across states.

In what many say is a bid to build a southern base for the Trinamul Congress, it wasn’t just the Panchamsali Lingayat leader from Babaleshwar and Lingayat seers, that the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) founder had his eyes on. Sources told News Trail that Kishor met with the former chief minister and BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa and his son B.Y. Vijayendra as well, amid speculation that they were in talks to launch a new party. BSY had launched the Karnataka Janata Party before the 2013 assembly polls, which robbed the BJP of a majority.

M.B.Patil who is integral to the Panchamasali agitation which is seeking reservation in 2A category, however denied on twitter that he had met with the man who transformed the Trinamool Congress.

Kishor too in a text message said “ This is hugely speculative, I am in Kolkata.” However, top intelligence sources in Bengaluru confirmed to this reporter that Kishor was very much in the city and had indeed met with both parties on Thursday night and on Friday.

Sources in the Congress party, however refused to countenance a cross-over by M.B. Patil to the Trinamool, saying his loyalty to the party could not be questioned.

Of late, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is planning a Pan India presence and has been visiting several states to explore the possibilities. She has engaged Kishor, a political strategist with whom the Janata Dal (Secular) had recently held preliminary talks to help boost its chances of coming back to power on its own in the state.

According to information reaching here, the master strategist was in the state capital to woo M.B. Patil to join the Trinamool Congress and increase his chances of becoming CM-a dream he has been nourishing for long. His efforts to contact Patil through phone proved futile as the former minister is considered loyal to the Congress. The former Water Resources Minister’s father, B.M.Patil was a Congress MLA and the entire family has high regard for the Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family in particular.

Kishor still gave it a try as leaders like Patil who belongs to the Lingayat community can never dream of occupying the CM’s gaddi or becoming CLP leader as long as Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar are in the race for these posts.

Mamata knows well that the Lingayats have been alienated from the Congress for long after Veerendra Patil was unceremoniously removed from the CM’s post by then PM Rajiv Gandhi. The community’s voters have switched over to the BJP and in the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress lost heavily because of divisions created by the battle for the religion tag. Secret meetings Recently, second line Congress’ Lingayat leaders comprising sitting and former legislators had held a secret meeting at a hotel in Bengaluru to strike unity among themselves and to stake their claim to the CM’s post. They wanted to send a message to the high command that they cannot neglect the community as it has the potential to upset the calculations of any political party. Now, the TMC wants to elevate M.B.Patil on par with Yediyurappa which is unlikely as the Lingayats are not ready to accept anyone as other than Yediyurappa.