Karnataka: Santhosh, Architect of dissidence' operates from BJP headquarter!
Santhosh stays on the fourth floor of the BJP state office and his meetings with Eshwarappa take place at 6 am.
Bengaluru: Stories doing the rounds on the BJP's internal dissent could even beat palace intrigue. According to one of the latest stories, party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa avers that the chief architect of the dissidence is BJP south India organising secretary, Santhosh himself!
The Lingayat strongman seems sure that it is Santosh who is instigating K.S. Eshwarappa and two party vice-presidents, Nirmala Kumar Surana and Bhanu Prakash, to up the ante against him and wreck his chances of becoming CM if the party wins the 2018 polls. which he even stated in a press release on Thursday.
Mr Santhosh, a bachelor, was a RSS pracharak before becoming party state organising secretary after Yeddyurappa became CM in 2008. A year and half ago, he was elevated to the post of south India organising secretary. He even nurses dreams of becoming CM like Manoharlal Khattar, once a state organising secretary of the BJP in Haryana, though it is doubtful if Santosh has ever contested an election!
Sources said Santhosh whenever in Bengaluru, stays on the fourth floor of the BJP state office at Malleswaram and his meetings with Eshwarappa take place at 6 am. In fact Thursday's agenda and resolutions of the rebels were reportedly drafted by Santhosh himself at the BJP office in Malleshwaram, where Yeddyurappa's team too operates.
A large section of office staff appointed during Santhosh's tenure, seem more loyal to him than Yeddyurappa. Despite being aware of this, Yeddyurappa has not shown them the door, on 'humanitarian grounds' said sources.
Why choose Eshwarappa to take on Yeddyurappa? Santhosh has not been able to exercise his control over the party office and district units after Yeddyurappa took over as BJP state chief and is using Eshwarappa to make life difficult for the former CM.
Sources confided that party national president Amit Shah had at a meeting in Delhi, instructed Eshwarappa to work with Yeddyurappa. But Eshwarappa is in no mood to do this after Santhosh reportedly told him, "You are a CM candidate. Why did you want to reach a compromise with Yeddyurappa? He is 75 and party national leaders will not make him a full-time CM if the BJP comes to power in 2018. You stand a better chance." This, sources said, was enough for Eshwarappa to revive his rebellion.