Panchamasalis demand withdrawal of show-cause notice served on Basanagouda Patil Yatnal

Bengaluru: A day after the BJP's central disciplinary committee issued a show-cause notice to Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, for his remarks against Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Panchamasali community pontiff Basava Jaya Mruthyunjaya Swami on Saturday warned of laying siege to the Vidhan Soudha if the notice is not withdrawn.

Taking a dig at Yediyurappa's son B.Y. Vijayendra, who is also the State BJP vice president, Basava said that everyone is aware of those behind serving the notice on Yatnal.

"I know that a senior BJP leader's son is behind it. If the BJP does not withdraw it we will lay siege to the Vidhan Soudha. By issuing show-cause notice to Yatnal they are trying to derail our movement, hence, we will make a serious attempt to gherao the Vidhan Soudha once we reach Bengaluru," he said.

The seer along with BJP legislator Yatnal and Congress leader Vijayanand Kashappanavar has been leading the 465 km march from Kudalasangama that will culminate in Bengaluru, with a rally scheduled on February 21.

Panchamasali, the largest sub-sect within the dominant Lingayat community to which Yatnal and Kashappanavar belong, while Yediyurappa belongs to the Banajiga sub-sect, have demanded that their existing reservation category be changed from 3B to 2A.

Their march reached Tumkuru, about 60 km from Bengaluru, on Friday night as the delegation stayed at the renowned Siddaganaga Matha here.

"Yatnal and Kashappanavar are the two pillars of this movement. The community will stand by them if the parties try to exert any kind of pressure on them," he said.

Yatnal has earned the wrath of the party for repeatedly predicting the end of B.S. Yediyurappa's tenure as Chief Minister over the past three months.

The MLA also targeted BSY's his son for allegedly 'meddling' in government affairs. Taking cognisance of the MLA's "anti-party" stand, MP and State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel has served a show-cause notice on him. Yatnal has been given 15 days to reply to the notice.

Basanagouda Patil Yatna has been upset over not being given a Cabinet berth during the recent expansion of the ministry. He also accused the BSY government of bias in allocation of funds to MLAs for taking up developmental activities in their constituencies.

The sources in the Karnataka BJP claim that the notice may be just posturing by the party high command as it has been alleged often that much of the dissent against Yediyurappa is fuelled by those in the party.

Yatnal is believed to be close to the RSS. It was in October 2020 that he first targeted the Chief Minister and said that Yediyurappa would not remain Chief Minister for long and the high command had decided that his successor would be from the north Karnataka region.

Yatnal, hailing from the Panchamasali community, the largest subsect within various sub-castes of the Lingayat community from North Karnataka, is capable of winning elections on his own and was a strong contender for a Cabinet berth. The community was upset when newcomers from Congress and JD(S) and even those from BJP who had lost the 2018 elections, were given important positions while party loyalists were left out.

Recently, Yatnal said that a new Chief Minister would assume office after Ugadi on April 13. This statement on January 30 had come even after senior leaders of the party both in the State and at the Centre had warned leaders not to make such statements.

Reacting to the BJP's show cause notice, Yatnal said that he was not shocked.

"I have been expelled from the party thrice in the past. This (notice) is not a new thing to me. I have not received show cause notice yet, but am expecting it as there has been a lot of pressure from behind to be issued to me," the MLA said.