RS crisis for BJP as BSY row boils
The BJP is battling crises on multiple fronts. While former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa threatens to split the party in Karnataka unless reinstated, other senior leaders are up in arms over BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s decision to allow a UK-based NRI, Anhsuman Mishra, to contest for the Rajya Sabha as an Independent from Jharkhand with its support.
The BJP leadership late evening managed to persuade Mr Yeddyurappa to attend the Karnataka Assembly’s Budget Session, which began on Tuesday. In New Delhi, top party leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha spoke out against the leadership over Mr Mishra’s Rajya Sabha nomination. He accused the leadership of “auctioning” party MLAs (in Jharkhand) to the ‘highest bidder’.
Sources said a number of party MPs, supported by senior figures like Mr L.K. Advani, Ms Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Mr Sinha are asking the BJP leadership to issue a whip against supporting the Independent candidate.
In Karnataka, speculation is rife that buckling under pressure, the central leadership is considering Mr Yeddyurappa’s possible reinstatement. The leadership fears that an angry Mr Yeddyurappa and his supporters could sabotage the BJP’s prospects in the state Assembly polls next year.
Party sources said Mr Yeddyurappa, who stayed away from the Budget Session on Tuesday along with his supporters, had been told his demand was being considered.
The leadership faced a hard time at the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning when several members, including Hazaribagh MP Yashwant Sinha, accused it of ‘auctioning’ party MLAs to the ‘highest bidder’ Nawada MP Bhola Singh said the party’s conscience was ‘dead’, and ‘it is bowing to money power’.
While the BJP did not renominate Rajya Sabha deputy leader S.S. Ahluwalia from either Jharkhand or Bihar, the party backed Independent candidate Anshuman Mishra from Jharkhand.
Mr Sinha, who raised the matter, said he was ‘pained’ to find six BJP MLAs signing Mr Mishra’s nomination papers. Mr Sinha urged Mr Advani to take up the matter with BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.
“I said our MLAs should not be put on the auction block to the highest bidder,” Mr Sinha told reporters. Ms Swaraj too conceded ‘there is a sentiment in the party that we should not support Anshuman Mishra’.
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