A phone call from the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership in Delhi was all that was needed to get KS Eshwarappa, Karnataka’s rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) minister, to resign.
BJP sources told News18 that the top brass had been extremely displeased with the controversy surrounding Eshwarappa.
The party high command was already seeing red after his recent statement claiming that the “saffron flag” may one day replace the national flag at Red Fort. BJP national president JP Nadda had even called the leader and ticked him off for his “irresponsible remark”.
“The decision to ask him to step down was taken in a few minutes. The message was conveyed to the leader to step down with immediate effect. The prime minister called a senior BJP functionary to ‘instruct’ him to resign,” a senior state BJP leader told News18.
The source further explained that the allegations made by the contractor who held Eshwarappa and his aides responsible for his death by suicide hit the front page of newspapers in the national capital and that was the last straw. Even the state BJP leadership was pulled up for not being able to control the minister and issue locally, the BJP leader added.
“This was the last straw. He had no choice,” said another BJP source.
Eshwarappa tendered his resignation to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday amid a row over the alleged suicide of the contractor, Santhosh Patil. In March, the deceased had written to PM Modi, seeking his intervention and alleging that the then minister Eshwarappa had demanded a commission to clear his bills for a Rs 4-crore government contract awarded to him by the RPDR department.
The former minister maintained that he had no links to the contractor or the allegations made by Patil in his death note. But he was asked to step down or face severe action from the party, sources told News18.
Patil, who was also a BJP worker, in his death note allegedly blamed Eshwarappa and his aides for demanding a 40 per cent commission to clear the bills, and held them responsible for his extreme step.
An FIR was filed against Eshwarappa on Wednesday, charging him with abetment to suicide.
Karnataka is heading into an election year and this controversy has hurt the party’s image in the state and nationally as well, say BJP leaders.
“Prime Minister Modi has made a promise to the people of the country, ‘Na Khaunga, Na Khane Dunga’ (neither will I indulge in corruption, nor allow anyone else to indulge in it), and that he will do away with ‘commissions’. And here comes a minister who has been named for taking a 40 per cent commission. It’s not acceptable at all. The strictest action was to be expected and that was what happened,” said a Karnataka BJP office-bearer who did not want to be named.
BJP insiders say that Eshwarappa has been known as a motormouth and the party was unhappy for a long time with the controversies surrounding him— all mostly due to his provocative and divisive statements.
When asked whether the minister registered his protest before resigning from his post, a BJP official privy to the details revealed that the party was in no mood to hear his explanations.
“He asserted to CM Bommai and the central leaders (via SMS) that he had no role in the corruption allegations, but they would not listen to a word more. They just wanted him to step down and send a message that the party has zero-tolerance for such acts or comments,” the official said.
The 74-year-old BJP veteran Eshwarappa is a protege of former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, and also hails from Shivamogga, the constituency of his mentor. However, in 2021, the BJP leader publicly criticised Yediyurappa for running an “autocratic government” and accused the CM’s family of meddling with government administration.
This is not the first time that Eshwarappa has been named in a corruption case. In 2012, when he was Karnataka’s deputy chief minister, a raid by the Lokayukta found currency counting machines in his possession.
A prominent leader from the backward Kuruba community, he is also known to grab headlines with his pro-Hindutva statements and has often been asked to withdraw them after being ticked off by senior BJP leaders.
The former minister, in fact, initially claimed in press conferences that he didn’t even know Patil. However, when shown a photo, he did a volte-face and said he may have met the contractor once.
“He is not Eshwarappa, he is U-turn Appa,” said another miffed Karnataka BJP minister to News18.
Eshwarappa stirred up another controversy when he declared that the alleged murder of Bajrang Dal leader Harsha in Shivamogga in February this year was the handiwork of “Muslim goons”. All this even before the police investigations began.
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