Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road out of bounds for public and party workers

Mysuru: The President Hotel near Sub-Urban Bus Station on the Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road became a beehive of activity this morning where a meeting between BJP National General-Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Karnataka in-charge K. Muralidhar Rao and BJP’s election-in-charge for Karnataka, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and BJP State President B.S. Yeddyurappa took place.

Javadekar and Muralidhar Rao arrived in Mysuru late last night and stayed at the same hotel. The leaders began hectic parleys with Yeddyurappa since  6 am over the issue of nominating an ordinary party worker to contest in Varuna Assembly constituency instead of Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Vijayendra contesting against Congress candidate and Chief Minister Siddharamaiah’s son Dr. Yathindra.

Today’s meeting was held at the Fourth Floor of the Hotel and sources said that it was a one-on-one meeting with Javadekar, Muralidhar Rao and Yeddyurappa.  Sources said that the leaders held a couple of rounds of talks over the breakfast table. Talks began early as the party had to first convince Yeddyurappa on the party High Command’s decision not to field Vijayendra and at the same time find a suitable candidate for Varuna to take on Yathindra.

The Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road where the hotel is located and the surrounding roads were declared out of bounds for party workers and even the media persons were not allowed entry. Over 100 Policemen were guarding the entry and exit road to the Hotel and barricades were set up. Both the national BJP leaders had to rush to Mysuru after violent protests were witnessed in Nanjangud town and in Mysuru yesterday following Yeddyurappa announcing that his son Vijayendra will not contest the election from Varuna.

The trouble began yesterday at a meeting that was convened in Nanjangud town ahead of a procession to be taken out for Vijayendra to file his nomination papers for Varuna seat yesterday afternoon. At the meeting, Yeddyurappa announced that Vijayendra will not be the party’s candidate from Varuna.

“ZP Member Sadananda, who has worked from the grassroots level to strengthen the party, would be fielded from Varuna. Vijayendra will stay in Mysuru and campaign for BJP candidates in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts,” he said.

As soon as Yeddyurappa made the announcement, commotion prevailed at the venue of the meeting. Party workers shouted slogans, stormed the dais and ransacked it and threw the furniture. The protesters vent their ire by defacing posters of BJP leaders B.L. Santhosh, Ananth Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde, Prathap Simha and R. Ashok. They suspected that the BJP leaders have conspired against the family of Yeddyurappa.

While Yeddyurappa and Vijayendra were leaving the venue, the party workers intercepted their cars and shouted slogans.

Police resorted to mild lathi charge (see pic below) and took a few persons into custody to bring the situation under control. Vijayendra had to be escorted in a Police vehicle to prevent his supporters from mobbing him.

As Yeddyurappa and other leaders reached Mysuru, the protests shifted to the city. The party workers thronged The President Hotel where the leaders were put up. The Police dispersed the crowd using force. Later, all access roads to the hotel were blocked for the public. The leaders, including Yeddyurappa’s sons Vijayendra and Raghavendra, S.A. Ramdas and Pratap Simha held several rounds of meetings to handle the situation.