New Delhi, Aug 7: The BJP top brass is upset with its Karnataka unit after it ‘failed’ to launch an offensive against Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who is facing an Income Tax probe.
Though the Congress leaders attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party national president Amit Shah over the use of the central agency, which they said was a move to instil fear among Gujarat MLAs camping in Bengaluru ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls, none of the Karnataka BJP leaders, barring two or three, utilised the I-T raids to take on Shivakumar and build a public perception that the state government was protecting the corrupt.
The party leadership suspects that black sheep among its Karnataka unit thwarted the opportunity to go full throttle against the ‘latest instance of corruption’ involving a powerful minister in the Siddaramaiah government.
Shah, who will be visiting the state for three days from August 12, is likely to discuss a political strategy to expose instances of misgovernance and corruption against the Congress government in the run up to the Assembly polls likely to be held early next year.
At a time when the prime minister has taken a number of steps to check black money and curb corruption, the state leaders’ knee jerk reaction against the I-T raids surprised us, said a senior BJP leader. The leadership is not happy with the state unit’s reluctance or lack of preparedness in fielding top leaders to defend the central government’s action during television channel debates and, instead deputing small-time leaders, added the central leader.
Mere coincidence
Karnataka BJP leaders should have explained that it was mere coincidence that the I-T raids took place at a time when the Gujarat Congress MLAs were housed at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
The taxmen did not touch any MLAs but went to the resort only looking out for Shivakumar. This demonstrated that there was no malice behind the I-T action, a BJP source stated.
The central leaders have always found perplexing the state BJP units’ reluctance to highlight murky acts of the Siddaramaiah government. Despite the BJP being the principal Opposition party in the state, it is the Janata Dal (S) that has been at the forefront in taking on the Congress regime whether inside the House or outside, the BJP sources said.
Earlier, the BJP central leadership had pulled up the state unit for its failure to take to logical end the Arkavathy Layout land denotification issue. The state government had denotified certain portions of the land acquired for the mega housing project, citing a high court order.
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