Two days after he was named as an accused in a case registered over the “unnatural death” of a civil contractor, senior BJP leader and Karnataka Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development K S Eswarappa announced that he would be resigning from the State Cabinet today.
“I have worked as Rural Development Minister in the Bommai government. I have decided today that I will resign as Minister tomorrow,” Eshwarappa told reporters in a short media briefing in Shivamogga, last evening. He was former Chief Minister and also a strong contender for the post, if present Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to be replaced.
The minister said he was quitting “to prevent embarrassment to the BJP” and would submit his resignation to Bommai in Bengaluru. Incidentally, only on the previous day, he had asserted that “There is no question of resignation at all… I want to tell the people of Karnataka that we have to conduct an exemplary investigation and find out who is behind this conspiracy. This is my demand,”
The contractor, Santosh Patil (40), who was also a BJP member, was found dead in a lodge in the Udupi region on Tuesday morning. He is suspected to have consumed poison and the police are investigating it as a suspected case of suicide.
Prior to his death, the contractor had accused Eshwarappa and his associates of not releasing payments for road work worth Rs 4 crore that he had carried out at Hindalga village in Belagavi, and “demanding a commission of 40 per cent”.
On Monday night, Patil had purportedly sent messages to journalists and friends in Belagavi, where he hailed from, alleging that Eshwarappa should be held responsible for his death. On Tuesday night, Eswarappa was named as an accused in a ase of abetment of suicide that was filed by the Udupi Town police on the basis of a complaint by Prashant Patil, the brother of the contractor.
A veteran leader of the BJP in Karnataka and a hard-core RSS man, Eshwarappa is known to have enjoyed the backing of the BJP central leadership over the years. The OBC Kuruba community leader was often used by the BJP to counter Lingayat strongman B S Yediyurappa’s hegemony over the party.
The Minister had earlier claimed that he did not know Patil, and filed a defamation case against him on March 14. However, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is said to be forced to seek his resignation from the cabinet, after finding that the opposition agitation seeking dismissal of the minister is getting momentum.
On Wednesday, the Opposition Congress approached Governor Thawarchand Gehlot and sought Eshwarappa’s dismissal from the Cabinet and his arrest. Congress also decided to hold a night-long protest to seek his ouster after laying siege to Bommai’s residence on Thursday morning. JD(S) leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had also called for the Minister’s resignation.
Earlier in the day, Bommai said that the state government is awaiting the preliminary findings of a police investigation into the contractor’s death to decide on a course of action. “The post mortem was completed only last evening,” Bommai said, adding that the BJP central leadership did not intervene in the controversy.
