Bharatiya Janata Party’s Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Sunday, in Tumkuru, alleged that Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and his son BY Vijayendra, the state vice president of BJP, were making systematic attempts to divide the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayat community for their political gain. He told the media that the CM does so every time he receives intimation of a threat to his position from the party high-command.
“Whenever Yediyurappa gets an indication from the top that there is a threat to his chair, he uses the Veerashaiva-Lingayat issue for his benefit. His son, Vijayendra, acts on similar lines. Their intentions behind not granting the community Other Backward Class (OBC) status,” claimed Yatnal. He also made allegations that Vijayendra and Minister Murugesh Nirani were trying to divide the community systematically and that they would never succeed.
Yatnal has often actively participated in the agitation by Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami of Kudalsangama mutt seeking OBC 2A category (non-creamy layer category) status to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community. The seer last week started a padayatra from Kudalasangama to Bengaluru to press for the demand and is supported by various seers and leaders of the Veerashaiva and Lingayat communities.
Yatnal alleged that Yediyurappa, a Lingayat himself, was not keen on granting 2A status to the community. The Vijayapura MLA said that no government order had been issued on the matter.
To a question on the show-cause notice issued by the BJP high command for speaking against the Chief Minister and others, Yatnal said he was yet to receive it. He alleged that issuing the notice was part of false propaganda to stop other BJP MLAs from speaking.
Yatnal has been up in arms against the Chief Minister and his son Vijayendra and has even said that Yediyurappa would be 'removed' from his position shortly. Yatnal's outburst against the CM intensified after a recent cabinet expansion, in which he was not included, despite being a senior party functionary and a former union minister.