The letter that has stirred a hornet’s nest and rattled the State BJP was meant to be confidential and was written by Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda and BJP state president K.S. Eshwarappa to apprise party national president Nitin Gadkari about the open defiance of six ministers and loyalists of former CM Yeddyurappa.
The letter dated March 26 was dashed off to Gadkari seeking ‘suitable disciplinary action’ against the ministers for ‘openly defying’ party directions’ and their ‘involvement in anti-party activity including conspiring with the support of the Congress to destabilize the state government. The letter recalled the chronology of events and instances when BSY loyalists resorted to ‘anti-party’ acts and concluded with a plea for action to save the image of the party in Karnataka.
The letter says the revolt began after BSY stepped down as CM. Ministers Shobha Karandlaje, V. Somanna, C.M. Udasi, Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh Katti and Murugesh Nirani boycotted the historic Jan Chetna Yatra of L.K. Advani in October 2011 to show how upset they were. In February, the party was forced to cancel the inaugural session of Chinthan–Manthan—a programme attended by Gadkari, after learning of Yeddyurappa’s plan to boycott the session.
In March 2012, Ms Karandlaje ‘defamed’ the CM and Eshwarappa by describing them as ‘Mir Sadak’ and ‘Mallappa Shetty’, who backstabbed Tipu Sultan and Kittur Rani Chennamma. The letter refers to the Udupi-Chikmagalur bypoll defeat and BSY’s public declaration that he would not campaign. The BSY camp taking their MLAs to the Golden Palm resort on March 17 also finds mention in the letter which says this had an impact on the Udupi poll.