The BJP on Thursday placated its miffed ally Janata Dal (Secular) into joining its ‘padyatra’ against the alleged MUDA scam in Karnataka and asserted that the JD(S) leader and Union minister H D Kumaraswamy will be part of the march starting from Bengaluru on August 3.
The development comes a day after the JD(S) on Wednesday pulled out of the proposed foot march against the alleged irregularities in the distribution of sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), including to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife.
Speaking to reporters, Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra, Union minister Pralhad Joshi and BJP general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, who is in charge of the party’s affairs in the state, played down Kumaraswamy’s earlier announcement of keeping out of the yatra.
Kumaraswamy had expressed anger over the mention of BJP leader Preetham Gowda, who was instrumental in exposing the alleged sex scandal involving the JD(S) leader’s nephew Prajwal Revanna, as a key organiser of the foot march.
Senior BJP leaders, including the three who held the press conference, met Kumaraswamy earlier in the day to placate him, sources said.
Agrawal later projected a picture of unity in the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the state, and said both the BJP and the JD(S) are organising the foot march from Bengaluru to Mysuru from August 3 to August 10 to protest the alleged fraudulent allotment of sites by MUDA.
Asked about the JD(S) leader’s unhappiness with the presence of Gowda, Agrawal said the yatra is a programme of the party’s organisation and individuals are not invited. Vijayendra as the BJP’s president in Karnataka and Kumaraswamy as his party’s face in the state will be the key figures in the programme, he claimed.
Kumaraswamy is very much part of the yatra and will be there on August 3, he said.
He was also dismissive of claims by BJP dissidents, including seasoned party leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal, saying there can be some aberrations in a big party like the BJP.
Yatnal has alleged that Vijayendra is hand in glove with Congress leader and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar to unseat Siddaramaiah.
Agrawal said the padyatra will give voice to people’s anger with the corruption of the Congress government as he claimed that the MUDA ‘scam’ is worth over Rs 4,000 crore.
The state government has also diverted funds meant for the welfare of SCs and STs for political purposes and for freebies, he said, asserting NDA’s MPs and MLAs from the state will be joining the yatra.
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