The ruling BJP might have ensured the win of all its six candidates in the legislative Council polls from the Assembly constituency but that has not made Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda’s job of ensuring peace in the strife torn party any easier. Even as he faced the unenviable task of acting against the 12 MLAs who crossvoted in the polls, the CM got a warning from the BSY camp who said they knew who the truant legislators were while demanding action against them.
On Thursday, the CM put up a brave face saying action should be taken against the legislators but was quick to add that this was something which should be handled by the party president. “Identifying the MLAs who crossvoted is no easy task”, he added. The CM went down memory lane and recalled that when he was state president, he had initiated disciplinary action against former Union minister Basavaraj Patil Yatnal and mining baron turned politician Janardhan Reddy for anti-party activity.
Excise minister M.P. Renukacharya, a staunch BSY loyalist, made it clear that the CM and the state BJP unit would have to take a tough decision against the rebels. He said he had a list of the 12 MLAs and would submit it to the party president. According to him, these MLAs had entered into a secret pact with Opposition leaders and taken huge sums of money to vote for the Independent candidate who won. He wanted the party to deny tickets to these legislators in the 2013 Assembly polls.