BJP bigwigs in a dilemma: Party under pressure to ensure positive verdict on Cauvery

BENGALURU: Thursday’s meeting on the Cauvery crisis mediated by Union water resources minister Uma Bharti is crucial for the BJP in Karnataka, as the party is under pressure to bring about a positive verdict for the state by using its clout at the Centre.

The party is feeling the pinch so badly that state unit president B S Yeddyurappa dashed off, along with an entire team of party state bigwigs, to New Delhi on the eve of the meeting with the reported intent of lobbying Karnataka’s cause. “We do not know what clout Yeddyurappa has, but we hope he and Union ministers Ananthkumar, Sadananda Gowda, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Nirmala Sitaraman will do something to help the state,” a senior cabinet minister in Karnataka told ET.

If the BJP doesn’t pull off a positive verdict for Karnataka in the negotiation, the party will lose more ground in the state which it hopes to wrest from the Congress in 2018. Analysts say if there is a constitutional crisis and the Karnataka government is dismissed for not following the Supreme Court’s orders, “it is the Congress which will gain sympathy for standing up for the people’s needs, while the BJP will be seen as the weak party that could not even convince its own national leader, the Prime Minister, to help the state. ”

The Karnataka BJP has been the hardest hit by the Cauvery imbroglio as the party is battling a perception that they are working against the state’s interests and not forced the Centre’s hand to favour the state.