Rift in State BJP but Amit Shah keeps his cards close to his chest

State BJP is going through a rough phase with a few leaders raising a rebel flag against their party president in state and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.  The infighting among the leaders was out in the open when they defied the instruction and held a meeting to air their grievances against Yeddyurappa and his coterie in the city on Thursday.

One of the senior leaders in the party and leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, KS Eshwarappa came out heavily on Yeddyurappa. It was clear that the disgruntled BJP leaders were not at all happy with Yeddyurappa and they wanted Yeddyurappa be replaced.

These unhappy leaders want the party national leaders to consider their 10 demands by May 10, lest they have threatened to hold a mega rally in Bengaluru, openly protesting against their own party president on May 20. Their demands include – replace Yeddyurappa, change in appointment of office-bearers, recall the loyal party workers who have been suspended for no fault of theirs and form a special committee to probe reasons that factored party's massive defeat in the recently concluded by-elections.

With elections scheduled for next year, BJP cannot afford to cut its image in public. But it is strange that party national president Amit Shah has chosen to stay mum on the issue. Leaders are brazenly attacking each other putting the party image at risk. Yet, there has been no word from Amit Shah, say party sources, reports Kannada Prabha.

But Shah is closely observing and he is expected to meet Yeddyurappa who is taking a delegation to New Delhi on Friday. Sources said that Irked Yeddyurappa has taken audio and video files of yesterday's meeting to justify his complaints against Eshwarappa and other leaders who attended the meeting.

Yeddyurappa is expected to urge the leaders to take some "serious" action to stop Eshwarappa in his tracks.

• karnataka bjp leader eshwarappa
• yeddyurappa
• amit shah