BJP bosses yet to grant audience to Basavaraj Bommai

Bengaluru: Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai is in Delhi to talk to the central leadership on the emerging border dispute Maharashtra and Karnataka. CM had arrived in Delhi on Tuesday but even on Wednesday, till reports came in, he was not able to meet the Home Minister Amit Shah or the party president JP Nadda. He has been made to wait for an audience with the two leaders of the party.

This unexplained silence from the central leadership has piqued many party leaders and the cadres in the BJP. According to sources in the party, the present situation requires the immediate attention of Shah and Nadda as it pertains to federal cooperation between the states. Though both states are ruled by BJP (partly in Maharashtra) the border dispute could have been easily resolved by the states themselves.

But that was not to happen and Bommai took to the circuitous way all the way to the Centre, which may delay the process further. The situation in Maharashtra-Karnataka is showing all signs of escalation pending the resolution between the leaders. This is not the first time Bommai had to wait to get the audience of the central leadership. It happened during Bommai's three futile trips over the last 18 months to secure the Centre's approval for cabinet expansion or reorganization. The BJP and INC are now pondering over the question if the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had lost the confidence of the central leadership?

CM Bommai, on his way back from Delhi, will visit Belagavi and assess the level of escalation himself. The intel agencies however indicate that the tussle between the two states was not spontaneous but an engineered event and will die down eventually. But the Belagavi BJP unit is bent on fight to finish mood and this has been communicated to the CM.