The rift between Congress rebel Munirathna and the old BJP leader Muniraju Gowda was exposed after the arrest of a BJP party worker on Monday.
The Bengaluru Police, on Monday, arrested a BJP party worker for commenting against former Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA Munirathna Naidu, bringing to fore the feud within the party. Tens of BJP party workers flanked by BJP leader from RR Nagar, Muniraju Gowda, staged a protest outside the police station after the party workers were arrested. Muniraju Gowda was the BJP's candidate for RR Nagar segment before Munirathna's defection to the party. He has had a long-standing feud with Munirathna, especially since the party is not willing to offer him a ticket to contest the bye-election, which is yet to be held. The RR Nagar seat is currently vacant as Munirathna, who was in the Congress, defected to the BJP in June 2019. The bye-polls have not been conducted yet as Munirathna was earlier accused of voter fraud and the case is currently being heard in the Karnataka High Court. What happened on August 31? On Sunday, legislator Munirathna wrote in a Facebook post that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. "My sincere request to residents of Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly Constituency. Today tested positive for Covid-19, hopefully will come back safely & continue to serve you, in case otherwise my humble apologies," he had written. While wishes poured in and his supporters wished him a speedy recovery, a BJP party worker named Badrinath had uploaded a comment to this post, accusing Munirathna of corruption and thuggery. Badrinath had also stated that he "hoped" Munirathna would not return from the hospital. "Coronavirus (sic) is the reason to divert the issue of threatening calls from people (referring to Munirathna), who do not have the guts to face election after being rejected by the party and party workers and proved themselves as corrupt," Badrinath commented, while adding, "Muniraju Gowda will emerge as the MLA and corner those who cheated RR Nagar residents and vidhana sabha constituents by cheating, rowdyism, looting (sic) etc." Badrinath further stated that those who cheat constituents would be punished, while adding, "Hope we will not see them come back after being admitted as a COVID-19 (sic) patient." One of Munirathna's supporters filed a complaint against Badrinath with the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Police, alleging that Badrinath's post was threatening the legislator's safety. The RR Nagar Police arrested Badrinath on Monday afternoon and produced him before a magistrate. He was granted bail soon after. However, on Monday night, Muniraju Gowda and his followers went to the RR Nagar Police Station and filed a complaint against Munirathna. Muniraju accused Munirathna of getting his followers to intimidate "loyal BJP party workers" and issuing death threats. "One of the BJP party workers', a loyal party worker, Badrinath was arrested. He was responsible for bringing to fore, the corruption that the former legislator (Munirathna) was involved in. Badrinath has not mentioned the MLA's name at all in his comment. Badrinath received a death threat at 8 pm today (Monday). He claimed to be Shivakumar, a leader from Laggere and a supporter of the disgruntled MLA Munirathna. But Shivakumar has not yet been arrested," Muniraju Gowda said. Old v/s new: The rift within the BJP Muniraju, on Monday, alleged that Badrinath was responsible for bringing down flex banners of Muniratha that were defacing the ward and alleged that Munirathna's supporters were trying to extract revenge against Badrinath for bringing down the flexes. Ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP had procured videos and pictures of 9,746 fake voter IDs, at an apartment in Jalahalli. Two days after the visuals went viral, Munirathna was named as one of the accused in the fake voter ID scam by the Jalahalli Police. The BJP had accused Munirathna of indulging in voter fraud. At the time, Badrinath was one of the BJP party workers involved in filing the case against Munirathna. The former CEO of the Election Commission, Sanjiv Kumar, had at the time said that the accused were allegedly involved in a "cash for votes" scam. Read: Fake voter ID cards seized: Sitting Cong MLA booked by B’luru police ahead of polls Munirathna, however, won the RR Nagar polls in 2018 on a Congress ticket. The BJP candidate at the time was Muniraju Gowda. In 2019, 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs defected to the BJP and brought down the coalition government. Munirathna was one of these 17 rebels. In 2019, he was officially inducted into the BJP and ever since, there have been rifts between the old BJP leaders and Munirathna and his supporters, who now form the new BJP cadre in the constituency. Muniraju Gowda on Monday accused Munirathna of threatening and intimidating the old party workers and also trying to control the RR Nagar Police. "When a loyal party worker was issued a death threat, why are the police not registering an FIR and arresting the accused? Munirathna wants to control the police so he can walk free," Muniraju Gowda alleged. TNM tried to reach out to former MLA Munirathna. However, due to his ill health, we were unable to obtain a comment.
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