Eshwarappa denies infighting in K'taka BJP, says Yeddyurappa CM candidate

Bengaluru: Hours after attacking BJP Karnataka president BS Yeddyurappa over his "unilateral" style of functioning and saying the "dictatorial attitude" won't work, senior leader KS Eshwarappa clarified that there is no infighting within the party.

“No infighting, fighting only to save organisation and confident about succeeding. BS Yeddyurappa is CM candidate for assembly polls,” Eshwarappa told ANI on Thursday.

Eshwarappa earlier on Thursday held a convention to "save" the party in defiance of its state president BS Yeddyurappa's warning against it. At the convention, he questioned why Yeddyurappa did not call meeting of 'disgruntled' party leaders as directed by BJP national president Amit Shah.

"...you call us anti-party or whatever you want, but our blood won't change... we will not go to any one at any cost, we will not join another party or form another party," he said adding that those who had gone out of the party are now warning of action.

The remarks were aimed at Yeddyurappa who had quit the BJP and formed Karnataka Janata Paksha which fared badly in the 2013 polls. Later, he had returned to the BJP.

Rejecting Eshwarappa's claims that Amit Shah had not opposed today's meeting, Yeddurappa said that on instructions from the national general secretary in-charge Muralidhar Rao, state general secretary N Ravikumar had made a?statement asking party men to refrain from attending the meeting.

"How can a party's national general secretary give such instructions without Amit Shah's consent...as a disciplined party worker, I feel that our party leadership will take appropriate decision," he said.

The fissures within the Karnataka unit have cropped up as a matter of concern among the central leadership, which is hoping for the revival of the party's fortunes in the assembly polls early next year to see BJP's return to power.

Forming the first-ever government in the South, the BJP had ruled the state from 2008 to 2013 which had seen three chief ministers taking over the the reign one after another amid the factional wars and corruption charges leading to the Congress return to power.