Bangarappa joins SP, to revive third front

Former Karnataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa's resignation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his Lok Sabha seat came as a surprise to no one, expecially the BJP.

According to BJP parliamentary party spokesman V K Malhotra, today's resignation, was only a formality and "the party had been expecting it for some time".

The reaction in Karnataka too was dismissive. "When he came, we welcomed him. When he is leaving, we wish him good luck," BJP's leader in the Assembly BS Yediyurppa said.

Bangarappa has joined the Samajwadi Party in the hopes of reviving the third front in the state where the Congress is in alliance with the HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal(S).

Bangarappa joined the BJP just before the 2004 general elections, when the BJP was set to make a strong showing in the simultaneously held Assembly polls. He has variously been a member of the Congress, the Socialist Party and the Karnataka Kranti Ranga Party, an outfit he floated in 1983.

Bangarappa was the chief minister of Karnataka from 1992 to 1994, when he had to quit following the Classik computer case, in which he faced charges of unduly favouring a company over others. Belonging to the toddy- tapper caste, Bangarappa commands a strong following in the hilly Shimoga district in Karnataka.

BJP sources say, Bangarappa had always been interested in returning as chief minister after his acquittal in the Classik computer case in 1998. For the 2004 Assembly polls, he had bargained for Congress tickets for 50 of his supporters. When the gambit failed, he moved to the BJP.

Here too he wanted to contest from his stronghold of Soraba, but was stymied by the state BJP leaders. For the past two months, the confusion over his status within the party has affected the BJP's showing in the panchayat elections. Bangarappa had been making his displeasure public.

"I am no sany-asin to be kept away from power," Bangarappa is reported to have said.

His future plans, according to state BJP leader Shankaramurthy, may include forging a third front as part of Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party and other like minded outfits.

"He came to our party out of his own volition and has left like that," said Shankaramurthy.