October 20, 2020 4:30:50 pm
Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. (Twitter / @ BRPatil_BJP)
Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal stated that BS Yediyurappa will not be the prime minister for long and his successor will be from North Karnataka, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aware of this.
Speaking at an event on Monday night, Yatnal, a senior BJP and MLA leader from Vijayapura said: “Yediyurappa won’t be CM for long. Even those in high command are fed up with him. It is completely neglecting northern Karnataka. The main leaders of the BJP party are tired of Yediyurappa ”.
Yatnal also said that Yediyurappa is not the CM from Karnataka, but only from his home district, Shivamogga. The statements of the BJP MLA have given more weight to speculation about the change of leadership within the Saffron party in Karnataka.
“Yediyurappa is completely neglecting the North Karnataka region, BJP in the state comes to power, just because the North Karnataka districts elect 100 MLA. But the Chief Minister is elected from South Karnataka, who only sends 15 MLA to the assembly, ”Yatnal said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has ensured that the next chief minister will be from the northern region of Karnataka, he added.
Yatnal, who also belongs to the Lingayat community as Yediyurappa, said that the BJP came to power due to its support in the northern region of Karnataka, dominated by Lingayat, in the 2018 assembly elections.
Rejecting the MLA’s claims, BJP National Secretary General CT Ravi said that Yatnal has been known to make such outlandish statements.
Meanwhile, the senior leader of Congress and leader of the opposition in the legislature, Siddaramaiah, said that some BJP leaders plan to remove Yediyurappa from the post of CM. “But we will never try to overthrow the BJP government, we are ready to face elections if the BJP government overthrew itself,” Siddaramaiah said, reacting to Yatnal’s statement.
Last month there was intense speculation about a leadership change in Karnataka when Yediyurappa met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President JP Nadda, and several Union ministers in New Delhi.
Later, the Karnataka BJP issued a statement saying that the reports about Yediyurappa giving way to another BJP leader were unfounded and misleading.
BJP state spokesman Captain Ganesh Karnik had said: “Few media channels have repeatedly reported that there is going to be a change in the leadership of Yediyurappa, but BJP strongly refutes these reports.”
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