BJP in damage control mode as Sushma blames Jaitley

PTI

New Delhi, 28 May 2011: The BJP was in a damage-control mode on Saturday after senior leader Sushma Swaraj appeared to blame Arun Jaitley and others for the rise of mining magnates Reddy brothers in Karnataka, bringing to the surface tensions among the party’s generation next leaders.

 

A day after Swaraj sought to distance herself from the Reddy brothers-- Karnataka ministers K Janardhan and K Karunakar-- widely perceived to be her proteges, saying they were inducted into the government at the instance of Jaitley, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar and M Venkaiah Naidu, she maintaned she had no role in it.

 

Her remarks in an interview to ’Outlook’ magazine brought to the fore perceived differences among the second generation of BJP leadership and the party was today forced to do some damage control.

 

Both Swaraj and Jaitley refused comments even as Congress sought to exploit the discomfort in the opposition party, saying there was a "civil war" in BJP.

 

Former BJP President Rajnath Singh was the first to come out with a statement dismissing differences between the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and her counterpart in Rajya Sabha.

 

"Reports of a rift between Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley are baseless. This is true that Arun was in-charge of Karnataka. I had sent him there as I was president (of BJP) during cabinet formation," Singh said.

 

However, he said he took responsibility for all that happened in Karnataka and nobody could be blamed for that. The selection of ministers is also the Chief Minister’s prerogative, he said.

 

"If responsibility is to be fixed, then it should be fixed on me as I was the party president. There were some political compulsions due to which some decisions had to be taken (during cabinet formation). It was going to be our first government in the South with BJP having a clear majority. We wanted to form a Karnataka-friendly government," he said.

 

Singh also said he had made Jaitley Karnataka in-charge and all decisions taken by the central leadership at that time had his consent.

 

He also accepted that in 2009, when the Reddy brothers had revolted against Yeddyurappa, he had sought the services of Swaraj to talk to the mining barons to end the crisis.

 

Swaraj had also claimed in the interview that she was asked to talk to the Reddy brothers and convince them to give up their demand for Yeddyurappa’s removal.

 

She maintained she had not acted as the protector of the Reddy brothers and had "no role in the political making" of the mining magnates. In fact, she emphasised she was opposed to three members of a family finding berths in the cabinet. The third Reddy brother - Somashekhar - has a ministerial status.

 

Dismissing reports of differences between the two leaders, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said Swaraj has also stated in the interview that she agrees with Jaitley on most issues and hence there were no differences.

 

"You read the interview carefully. She has also said that I have good relations with Arun Jaitley. We are in agreement on 95 to 99 per cent issues," Prasad said.

 

In Bangalore, Yeddyurappa said there was no pressure on him to take the Reddy brothers into his cabinet and that it was his decision to do so.

 

Congress took swipes at BJP for the reported rift between its two top leaders. "Swaraj’s assertions once again underscore the fundamental reality of BJP that money talks and Yeddyurappa and Reddy walk. While Karnataka burns with corruption, the Neros of BJP fiddle in Delhi.

 

"It does not require any imagination to find out from where the fiddle came. It definitely came from Bangalore," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.

 

Senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed said there was a "civil war-like situation" in the main opposition.