By IANS,
Bangalore : Bowing to the dissidents’ demands, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Tuesday rolled back the transfers of three officials close to the Reddy camp – two weeks after they were shunted out from their posts.
Meanwhile, some colleagues of the chief minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government expressed concern over the compromise worked out to resolve the protracted war and said the party and the government’s image had taken a severe beating.
One of the rebel camp’s demands was posting officials of their choice in the districts under their charge.
Accordingly, B. Shivappa was Tuesday posted back as deputy commissioner of Bellary, the stronghold of dissident leaders Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy.
Yeddyurappa also brought back Seemant Kumar Singh as Bellary police superintendent.
The other rollback was of N.V. Prasad, who returned as deputy commissioner of Gadag district, of which Reddy loyalist and Health Minister B. Sriramulu is in charge.
All three had been transferred two weeks ago, triggering open rebellion by the Reddy camp.
The Reddy brothers had mounted a campaign for Yeddyurappa’s removal, paralyzing the government for two weeks from Oct 26.
BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj, whom the Reddy brothers call their ‘thayi’ (mother), brought them around to give up their demand for Yeddyurappa’s removal in return for accepting almost all other demands.
On Monday, Yeddyurappa yielded to the Reddy brothers and dropped his close associate Shobha Karandlaje from the ministry. Karandlaje, who held the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj portfolio, was the lone woman member of the Yeddyurappa ministry.
Within days of the dissidents asking for his removal, the chief minister had shunted out senior IAS officer V.P. Baligar as his principal secretary.
Picking up Baligar as his principal secretary was one of the first acts of Yeddyurappa on becoming the chief minister of the BJP’s first government in Karnataka and south India on May 30, 2008.
Meanwhile, state BJP chief D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Home Minister V.S. Acharya acknowledged that the open dissidence and the solution worked out to end it has badly dented the BJP’s image and its first government in the south.
At separate press meets Monday, Gowda and Acharya said the image of the party and the government had “taken a beating”.
Gowda also acknowledged that all problems in the party and the government have not been sorted out.
“It would be foolish to believe that we will solve all issues at one go by raising our hands and by smiling,” he said, referring to Yeddyurappa and Janardhana Reddy holding their hands aloft in a show of unity for the cameras at Sushma Swaraj’s residence in New Delhi Sunday, after she announced “everything has been solved”.
Acharya also echoed that view. “The image has been hurt. We have to work hard to restore it,” he said.
Even before the compromise was worked out, another legislator Suresh Kumar had written to his ministerial colleagues that “the BJP is the loser” in the battle between the dissidents and the chief minister.