With her remarks on Arun Jaitley regarding Reddy brothers threatening to snowball into a major row, BJP President Nitin Gadkari today stepped in to virtually snub Sushma Swaraj saying any debate on the choice of ministers in Karnataka in the media is “totally unnecessary”.
Gadkari came out with a statement this evening after former party president Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa claimed responsibility for inducting the controversial Reddy brothers, mining magnates, into the state cabinet, from which Swaraj had distanced herself.
Swaraj, widely perceived to be close to the Reddy brothers, had in an interview to Outlook said it was Jaitley, Yeddyurappa, M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar who had decided to induct Janardhan and Karunakar Reddy into the cabinet.
The remarks, which brought to fore the differences in second generation leadership in the party, forced Rajnath Singh and Yeddyurappa to claim responsibility for the induction of the Reddy brothers.
While Swaraj and Jaitley kept mum on the issue, Gadkari came out with a sharp statement which said there is “absolutely no question of any individual or individuals influencing this process in any particular manner”.
“Any debate about the choice of ministers in the Karnataka government at this stage in the media is totally unnecessary,” Gadkari said.
This is the second time that Gadkari appeared to openly snub Swaraj for her public statements. In the earlier instance, Gadkari had differed with her when she said she was satisfied with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on the controversy surrounding appointment of P J Thomas as CVC and the matter should be closed.
In today’s statement, Gadkari said BJP is a democratic party and always follows the democratic procedure of government-formation in states when it is returned to power.
“The party leader is elected by the BJP legislature party in the presence of a team of central observers. The Chief Minister, in exercise of his constitutional prerogative, forms his cabinet in consultation with the party’s central and state leadership,” Gadkari said.
He maintained this practice was followed in Karnataka as well.
“It is the considered position of BJP that all our cabinet ministers in Karnataka government are the unanimous choice of the party, both central as well as the state, and are equally capable and committed to providing good governance to the people of Karnataka,” Gadkari said.
Earlier, Rajnath Singh had denied there was any rift between Swaraj and Jaitley.
“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.
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.
–PTI