BENGALURÚ: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappait is political secretary and great nephew NR Santosh it has repeatedly been embroiled in controversy.
Santosh has been Yediyurappa’s shadow for many years and had also served as her personal secretary. He was seen organizing the logistics for the then rebel Congress and the JD (S) MLA before their resignations, which eventually led to the fall of the previous JD (S) -Congress government.
In 2017, Santosh was arrested on charges of kidnapping Vinay NS, the former private rural development assistant and minister of the panchayat raj KS Eshwarappa. He also faced charges of dowry harassment and attempted murder.
Although Santosh played a key role in overthrowing the JD (S) Congressional regime and bringing Yediyurappa to power, he had reportedly fallen out with CM’s son BY Vijayendra and was kept out of the house.
However, he returned and was appointed political secretary to the prime minister in May this year. Sources close to CM claim that some RSS officials with whom he had developed closeness when he was with Yediyurappa and Santosh’s maternal family played a key role in his return.
There are also reports that he used some “personal matters” as tools to pressure Yediyurappa to give him an influential position in his government. But they claimed that Yediyurappa’s family members had made sure they kept him away from the CM and he again got into a fight with them when they learned that he allegedly identified with the anti-Yediyurappa camp.
Yediyurappa’s family reportedly asked him to put up his papers to make way for revelers.
When he was appointed political secretary of the CM, some BJP legislators, who were sulking about being excluded from the cabinet, raised questions about the position of another blood relative given to him by the prime minister, as the role of their children in the government has been a painful point since the beginning of the trimester.
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