Bengaluru, 22 April

BJP on Monday expelled rebel leader KS Eshwarappa for six years for violating party discipline and contesting Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate.

The former deputy chief minister who had also served as the party's state unit president, has entered the poll fray, blaming State BJP president BY Vijayendra and his father and veteran party leader BS Yediyurappa, for his son KE Kantesh being denied the ticket to contest from Haveri.

Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has got BJP's Haveri ticket, while Vijayendra's brother and MP BY Raghavendra is the BJP candidate from Shimoga. "Ignoring the party's directions, you are contesting as a rebel candidate from Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency, causing embarrassment to the party. This is violation of party discipline," state disciplinary committee president Lingaraj Patil said in the expulsion order.

It said, "so, you have been relieved from all the responsibilities and have been expelled from the party for six years, with immediate effect."

The 75-year-old Eshwarappa, had remained steadfast in his decision to contest, spurning efforts by party leaders to pacify him. He had even filed his nomination as an independent candidate. The party's decision to expel the former Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, came on the last day for withdrawal of candidature for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka on 7 May.

Eshwarappa, along with Yediyurappa and the late H N Ananth Kumar, is widely credited for building the BJP from the grassroots in Karnataka. Claiming that the party in the state is in the clutches of its Parliamentary board member Yediyurappa and his family, with his one son as MP and other son Vijayendra as MLA and the state BJP president, Eshwarappa, has repeatedly accused Yediyurappa of sidelining those who espoused the cause of Hindutva like Nalin Kumar Kateel, Pratap Simha, C T Ravi and D V Sadananda Gowda. He has, however, stressed that he is not against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ahead of the Assembly polls last year, opting out of the contest, he had asked the party's central leadership that he wished to retire from electoral politics and requested it to not consider fielding him from any constituency.

Modi had then dialled Eshwarappa and spoke to him over a video call and expressed appreciation for his move to retire from poll politics, as per the instructions from the party.