Congress predicts Karnataka BJP chief Yeddyurappa's downfall after Lok Sabha elections

Congress leader Belur Gopalakrishna has predicted that the 2019 Lok Sabha election results will force BS Yeddyurappa to announce his exit as Karnataka's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief. He claims that the saffron party will face severe unrest after which BL Santosh, the national joint secretary of BJP, will replace Yeddyurappa.

"BJP leaders, including former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda, have hinted at the exit of Yeddyurappa as head of the state unit. Santosh, who is on good terms with the national leaders, will be the new state unit chief. With the exit of Yeddyurappa, sitting MP of Udupi-Chikkamaglur Shobha Karandlaje will also be sidelined," Gopalakrishna said, reports Deccan Herald.

According to the former MLA, BJP leaders including Shobha Karandlaje, Umesh Katti, V Somanna and Ayanur Manjunath still believe that the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka will topple. "They fear that they will lose their clout with the exit of Yeddyurappa as chief of the state unit," he said, adds the report.

Amid all these claims from the Congress, the MLA from Bijapur, Basangouda Ramangouda Patil Yatnal, also has his eye towards the top leadership position. Yatnal, while speaking to the media on Monday, said that the next leader for the BJP should be from North Karnataka as it is the palisade of the party. He also said that he has made requests to the party's national leadership to look into the matter.

Belur Gopalkrishna has always been a man of controversy. While addressing a rally at Shivamogga in February, he had asked people to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi if they had the guts.

"Those who speak about Nathuram Godse, the killer of Mahatma Gandhi, should not be in this country. If you have guts, you kill Modi (PM Modi)," he had told the crowd gathered there.