Public feud may spoil Modi’s southern plans

NEW DELHI: A growing feud between two BJP Karnataka veterans, BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa, is threatening to spoil PM Narendra Modi’s hopes of conquering the state.

Karnataka, the first southern state where the BJP came to power on its own in 2008, is scheduled to go to polls in May next year and the BJP is keen to launch its battle for south India from there. But the party was left red-faced when Eshwarappa and his loyalists held a “save BJP” convention, taking potshots at Yeddyurappa, a former CM also called BSY, over his “unilateral” style of functioning,.

“We promised Eshwarappa we would take care of his concerns, but he appears to have decided to take on BSY on his own,” a BJP leader involved with Karnataka affairs told HT. “We will speak to both factions.”

The party won 17 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and believes the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah was battling antiincumbency . It appointed Yeddyurappa as the state chief and later named him the chief ministerial candidate. This, however, triggered a feud within the BJP with Eshwarappa revolting against Yeddyurappa.

The feud started after Yeddyurappa appointed his confidant S Rudregowda as the president of the BJP in Shimoga district. Rudregwoda contested the 2013 assembly election on the ticket of Karnataka Janta Party, an outfit floated by Yeddyurappa when he quit the BJP, and secured more votes than Eshwarappa. Yeddyurappa returned to the BJP and his loyalists got prominence after he was appointed Karnataka BJP chief. NEWDELHI: With the NDA government making a push for digital transactions, the Opposition on Friday confronted the Centre’s IT department with questions on how data privacy can be assured.

Congress’ Pradip Bhattacharya argued that Aadhaar linkage may lead to cyber theft of bank and other accounts as Aadhaar system doesn’t have enough security infrastructure.

Some members also pointed out that under the Companies Act, all data can be demanded, compromising the Aadhaar privacy. Responding to this, the IT department officials pointed out that under the US system, details of account holders can be revealed to the board but the EU has preventive measures to stop any disclosure of such data.

Some members asked the government officials to consider writing the Aadhaar number in regional languages as many people can’t read English.