BJP party MLAs, Ministers in touch with Congress leaders, claims Basanagouda Patil Yatnal
Bengaluru, Jan 24: Pushing for a cabinet rejig soon, senior Karnataka BJP legislator Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Monday claimed that some MLAs and Ministers, especially those who joined the saffron party from other parties, are in touch with the Congress leadership, and will jump ship, once the 2023 assembly poll schedule is announced.
Meanwhile, giving credence to these claims, Congress leaders D K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah said, several leaders from the BJP and JD(S) were in touch with them and that they would not divulge details.
"....several people have booked tickets to go to D K Shivakumar's house, Siddaramaiah's house, if you continue with them (as Ministers), where will the BJP survive? For BJP to survive, cabinet reshuffle has to take place at the earliest, good and effective people should be inducted," Yatnal said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said the government has to function effectively to give a befitting reply to the Congress in the days to come.
"(BJP) Central leadership is aware as to which MLA will quit and who will remain, Prime Minister is also aware and they will take a suitable decision....I'm not saying all those who have joined BJP from other parties are not loyal, but few are there, once the election commission announces dates for polls, by the same afternoon they will resign from BJP and as Ministers and walk out," he added.
Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah and state Congress President D K Shivakumar, not willing to divulge details, too claimed that several leaders from BJP and JD(S) were in touch with them.
"It is true that they are in contact with us, but I won't reveal names....it is true that people from both BJP and JD(S) are in touch....how many, who all, won't reveal," Siddaramaiah said in response to a question.
Stating that in politics such things cannot be discussed openly, Shivakumar reacting to Yatnal's claims said "they (BJP) leaders know what is happening within their party. Neither me, nor Siddaramaiah will be able to disclose the names of those who are talking to us.....ask Ministers who are talking to us, instead of me, why should we disclose. This is politics, it is our duty to maintain secrecy."
Of late several BJP legislators have even been advocating Gujarat-like overhaul of the Karnataka Cabinet soon, to make way for new faces, and have noted that if it is done in March, it will be too late for ministers to make any mark, even in their own constituencies. These developments have come amid talks in party circles that the expansion or reshuffle of the cabinet is likely, only after the Assembly elections in five states.
With pressure mounting on him to expand or rejig his cabinet, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai today indicated that he is waiting for the BJP leadership's consent on going ahead with the exercise, and was also trying to bring it to their notice.
Yatnal, who on Thursday had held a closed-door discussion with another senior legislator M P Renukacharya, today held a similar meeting with party MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli.
He however called it a casual meeting for lunch at Jarkiholi's place and not intended at putting any pressure on the party to be inducted into the Ministry.
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Wife abandons man over water crisis in MP village; pipeline work starts after his complaint
Bhopal (PTI): A village in eastern Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori district is hoping for an end to its water woes, courtesy of a woman who refused to put up with the water scarcity and left her husband in protest.
The man, Jitendra Soni of Devra village, took his water-induced marital grievance to the district administration during the weekly ‘Jansunwai’ (a public outreach programme) on Tuesday.
Acting on Soni’s complaint, the Dindori collector directed officials from the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department to resolve the water shortage in Devra, located just 3 km from the district headquarters.
The tribal-dominated Dindori district, bordering Chhattisgarh, is located about 460 km from the MP capital Bhopal.
Soni told PTI, “My wife has abandoned me due to the water crisis in my village. She went to her parents’ house along with our children. I shared my plight with the district collector. The PHE department has been directed to take steps to arrange water in the village.”
Soni said he tried to persuade his wife Laxmi to stay back, but she didn’t listen.
“I told her that our children’s studies would get affected, but she said there is no future in the village due to the water crisis,” he said.
Soni claimed that several other women from his village are ready to leave due to water scarcity.
“There are several families that are not speaking up out of fear of infamy and have moved out of the village silently. But I am an unemployed labourer and there is no scope of arranging water on my own,” he claimed.
Soni said their village has a handpump and 2,000-2,500 residents are dependent on it.
“There is a huge crowd at the handpump from morning till night. People hardly get any water from there,” he said.
PHE official Afzal Amanullah told PTI that they have started work to resolve the issue.
“The village has a borewell that was dug under the ‘Nal, Jal’ scheme, but the water level has dropped, and people are not getting adequate water in Devra village. The villagers have demanded that they be provided water connections from the overhead tank in a neighbouring village,” he said.
Amanullah said that the work of connecting the old pipeline in Devra with the overhead tank is being carried out on Wednesday.
“We are going to start the water supply through the overhead tank,” he said.
He said the work to provide tap water to Devra, Hans Nagar and Saket Nagar was earlier sanctioned under the ‘Jal Jeevan’ Mission. Accordingly, the overhead tank was constructed in Hans Nagar.
After connecting the existing pipeline network in Devra to the overhead tank, Soni and other villagers will have better access to water, he said.
The PHE is trying to connect all the areas of the village through water supply lines, Amanullah added.
