Bangalore: Karnataka BJP Elders' Forum, an informal group of party veterans on Saturday said it would release a list of tainted ruling party MLAs and Ministers and threatened to field "honest candidates", if tainted ones were given tickets to contest in the next Assembly elections.
"We will release a list of 20 to 30 tainted MLAs and Ministers in one or two months", the Forum's president BB Shivappa, former president of the party's state unit, told reporters after a meeting of the grouping.
"If opportunity is given for them to contest, fitting reply will be given by fielding honest candidates", added Shivappa, also a former MLA.
He expressed the view former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa leaving the party and floating a new regional outfit would not harm the interest of the BJP though there would be "minor problems here and there" with his followers and those who benefited from him choosing to go with him.
Shivappa asserted that the dominant Lingayat community would not back Yeddyurappa.
To a question, he said had the RSS been "powerful", it would not have allowed things to come to such a pass vis-a-vis the BJP government which, according to him, earned a "bad name".
"Had RSS been firm, Yeddyurappa would not have treaded the wrong path", Shivappa said.
The Forum urged the BJP government to "stop theatrics; engage in governance", saying the Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Deputy Chief Ministers K S Eshwarappa and R Ashoka and "prominent" ministers are only busy trying to placate Yeddyurappa to stay in the party.
"People have elected you for providing pro-people governance and not to while away time indulging in infighting. Under the Chief Minister's leadership, the administration should be given renewed vigour and problems of the people should be responded to", he said.
Former MP and ex-deputy speaker of Lok Sabha, S Mallikarjunaiah, former MLAs Rama Bhattaru and Shakuntala Shetty and former MLC Anna Vinaya Chandra were among those who are part of the Forum.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 03, 2012, 19:55