Yeddyurappa gets the upper hand, Eshwarappa’s rebellion reined in by BJP

Eshwarappa was all ready to boycott the party meet in Mysuru However, things changed dramatically in a matter of few hours and Eshwarappa had to toe the party line

The BJP high command's intervention though delayed, however, came at a juncture when the Kuruba leader's conduct was becoming more and more "untenable", feels the Yeddyurappa camp. Despite being reprimanded, K S Eshwarappa was clearly lurching towards a showdown with Yeddyurappa. The leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council, was all set to boycott the state executive meeting scheduled to be held in Mysuru on May 6 and 7. He had also remained obstinate about organising the preparatory training camp under the aegis of Sangolli Rayanna Brigade in Raichur, on May 8.

On Friday however, a humbled Eshwarappa came before the media and announced that he would indeed participate in the executive meeting. He also said that he had decided to "postpone" the training camp in Raichur. "As a loyal party worker it is my duty to attend the executive meeting. The training camp to be organised by the Brigade has been postponed as it was clashing with the meeting in Mysuru. I have never missed a single party meeting till date," he added.

Eshwarappa's emergency press meet on Friday evening was however an afterthought. The preceding hours saw him losing his cool over mediapersons when he was questioned about the party's non-inclusion of his name in the meeting's agenda. Though protocol necessitates inclusion of his name as one of the speakers, Eshwarappa's name doesn't figure in the two-day schedule finalised by Yeddyurappa. It was also rumoured that he was being purposefully kept away from the meeting.

All this prompted him to hold an emergency meeting with other members of the Brigade to combat the situation. However, it soon became evident that Eshwarappa had been checkmated, especially with the intervention of both the RSS and the Central leadership. The leadership was forced to step up at this juncture and send a strong message to Eshwarappa and other revolting leaders to abide by the party diktat.

In the event Eshwarappa had skipped the meeting and had gone ahead with the Raichur  programme, the damage done to the party's image would have been irreversible.