Loyalty takes precedence over civic woes

BANGALORE: Civic woes? What's that? The meeting was convened to discuss Bangalore's civic problems. But the BJP men forgot why they had assembled and instead played the loyalty game.
The Bangalore unit of the BJP comprising ministers and legislators met here on Friday ostensibly to find solutions to issues like garbage, power crisis and drinking water scarcity before the assembly elections.
But with loyalty taking precedence over everything, none of the MLAs or ministers spoke on the garbage issue. All were busy expressing their loyalty to the party dismissing speculations that they were shifting either to Congress or Karnataka Janata Party (KJP). There was no desired outcome at the meeting," an MLA told TOI.
Speculation has been rife that MLAs SR Vishwanath, M Satish Reddy, M Krishnappa, S Muniraju among others will quit BJP and join Congress. However, all of them are said to have assured the leadership of not taking such a step.
Minister V Somanna and MLA Hemachandra Sagar, loyalists of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, also turned up at the meeting sending a message that they were no more with the Lingayat strongman.
Bangalore did merit mention though but only in terms of poll prospects. Kick-starting the poll process, the MLAs urged the ministers present to have a separate election manifesto for Bangalore as the unit constitutes the largest chunk with 28 segments. "Besides manifesto, the meeting decided to urge chief minister Jagadish Shettar to earmark more funds for the development of Bangalore,'' Vishwanath told reporters.
While all the ministers - R Ashoka, S Suresh Kumar and Aravind Limbavali -- and MLAs representing the city were invited for the interaction, energy minister Shobha Karandlaje was yet again snubbed by the party. The party deliberately avoided Shobha, representing Yeshwanthpur, after she wrote a second letter to Shettar on women's safety. The party had not invited her to the brainstorming session earlier this month too.