Can BJP overcome infighting to win Karnataka?

The fissures within the Karnataka unit have cropped up as a matter of concern among the central leadership, which is hoping for the revival of the party's fortunes in the assembly polls early next year to see BJP's return to power.

Bengaluru, Dec 23: All is not well within the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the delay in the cabinet expansion. There are six vacancies in the Kanataka cabinet.

The fire of discontentment engulfed after former ministers KS Eshwarappa and Ramesh Jarkiholi decided to stay away from the winter session of the legislative assembly in Belagavi expressing displeasure over the delay in their re-inclusion in the cabinet.

The two had earlier resigned as ministers Eshwarappa over allegations of bribery and Jarkiholi over a sex scandal but the probe agencies investigating into the respective cases had given them clean chits.

The MLAs have been exerting relentless pressure on chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor BS Yediyurappa to keep up the promise and take up the matter with the high command.

Senior legislator KS Eshwarappa has vented his anger on Bommai for maintaining silence on the issue. A miffed Jarakiholi has also threatened to quit as MLA.

Stating they have been given "clean chit" by police in those cases, the two leaders had been demanding that they be made ministers again.

Eshwarappa had said he would not attend the Assembly session until he is made a Minister.

The veteran leader's comments are critical at a time the Congress has been running an aggressive campaign against the ruling BJP in the state where Assembly Elections are due in about five months.

Can Bommai keep the flock together?

The fissures within the Karnataka unit have cropped up as a matter of concern among the central leadership, which is hoping for the revival of the party's fortunes in the assembly polls early next year to see BJP's return to power. However, chief minister Bommai has tried to play down any resent within the party.

Bommai said he was in touch with Jarkiholi and Eshwarappa. Their non-participation in the assembly is not boycott. "They are right in their thinking that they must return to the Council of Ministers once they were cleared of all the charges," Bommai told reporters in Belagavi.

"They (party leadership) are also positive about their induction but certain things cannot be told in public," the chief minister added.

Meanwhile, Bommai is likely to travel to Delhi to meet the party's high command on Monday. He is expected to take up the matter of cabinet expansion in the state.

The meeting is crucial as elections are due in Karnataka early next year.

Forming the first-ever government in the South, the BJP had ruled the state from 2008 to 2013 which had seen three chief ministers taking over the reign one after another amid the factional wars and corruption charges leading to the Congress return to power.