BS Yediyurappa’s son not our leader, involved in corruption: Karnataka BJP leader

Cracks appeared to widen in the Karnataka BJP as its MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi said on Monday that the saffron party did not accept the leadership of state BJP chief BY Vijayendra, calling him the party’s “corrupt leader”, and stressing the need for a collective leadership.
BY Vijayendra is the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. In November year, the BJP’s high command appointed Vijayendra as the chief of the party’s Karnataka unit.
“We have never accepted his leadership and won’t accept it in the future. The party will decide who should be made the leader. He is a junior. He doesn’t know the ideologies of our party. He is our party’s corrupt leader. We are against him,” Jarkiholi said.
However, Jarkiholi said he was not against Yediyurappa and that he was against Vijayendra. “We are not questioning Yediyurappa. We won’t question Yediyurappa. We will question Vijayendra as he is not our leader,” he said.
The BJP MLA said there were no big leaders in the party following the demise of former Union Minister Ananthkumar in 2018.
Jarkiholi said, “By God’s grace, we have a strong team. Let there be Yediyurappa, Ramesh Jarkiholi and (Basanagouda Patil) Yatnal. The power shouldn’t be concentrated on one person. There should be collective leadership. If one person becomes the leader, even I can become a second Yediyurappa.”
“Anybody can become a dictator, so I request the formation of a collective leadership consisting of 15-20 people. Assign them a task to achieve this. If we bring these 15 leaders on board, we will secure 130-140 seats for the party,” he asserted.
Last year, Yatnal stoked a row by accusing the former BJP regime in Karnataka, led by Yediyurappa, of being involved in a Rs 40,000- crore scam during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“One mask costs Rs 45. How much did Yediyurappa bill the government? He billed Rs 485. He (Yediyurappa) has looted thousands of crores of rupees. Rs 40,000 crore were looted. They billed Rs 8-10 lakh for one corona patient,” Yatnal had alleged.
His remarks drew a stern response from Vijayendra then.