Battle of the sexes in BJP

Women in party want action against Renukacharya for suggesting some of them used their charms on senior leaders to climb political ladder

Women in party want action against Renukacharya for suggesting some of them used their charms on senior leaders to climb political ladder

ALL's FAIR IN WAR: Bharathi Shetty and Renukacharya

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, M P Renukacharya should know. After all, the member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) has burned his fingers before with his cavalier attitude towards the delicate feelings of the opposite sex.

If in the past it was a lady friend making public intimate pictures and demanding justice because she felt she had been used for pleasure and discarded, now it is the ladies of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who have sounded the battle cry against the Honnali MLA for 'demeaning women in public' during his recent rebellion against the chief minister, when he had lashed out against women who got too close to senior leaders for personal gain. Leading the charge is Bharathi Shetty, BJP Mahila Morcha president.

'He is no gentleman'

SHETTY is learnt to have launched a scathing attack on the legislator at a party office-bearers' meeting yesterday for casting aspersions on some women leaders, including her.

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Shetty said women in the party were hurt by Renukacharya's vitriolic attack against them in public, said a party insider.

"I think he has no respect towards woman," Shetty is understood to have said in the meeting attended by Yeddyurappa and senior leader H N Ananth Kumar. "His behaviour is completely against BJP culture and someone has to teach him etiquette."

Karandlaje ouster

In the recent BJP MLAs' rebellion led by G Janardana Reddy, Renukacharya was reportedly at the forefront of engineering the ouster of Shobha Karandlaje from Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's cabinet by making it a condition of the ceasefire deal ultimately reached with him.

Yeddyurappa survived, and has since been said to be plotting and planning to get back at the rebels.

Spewing venom on Karandlaje, who is a close friend of Yeddyurappa, Renukacharya had gone on to say some women were trying to influence senior leadersu00a0 in the party and acquire lucrative positions by getting close to them.

Love scandal

Renukacharya had hit the headlines a couple of years ago when a nurse believed to have been his lover, Jayalakshmi, had made public some intimate pictures of them together. She had accused him of discarding her after sexually exploiting her and had lodged a complaint with the state women's commission. At the time, Renukacharaya was seen as a staunch Yeddyurappa loyalist, and the chief minister stood by him in the crisis.

The Jayalakshmi case files soon disappeared in the labyrinth of the women's commission corridors.u00a0

Pramila Nesargi, a former BJP MLA, who was president of the women's commission when the incident happened, said there were no lapse on the part of the commission. "No, the files did not go missing, but Jayalakshmi took her complaint back and the case was closed," Nesargi said.

Later, there were even unconfirmed reports that Renukacharya and Jayalakshmi had reached an understanding and that their romance was back on track.

Sisters in arms

On the latest drama, Nesargi said she could not endorse Renukacharya's public comments on the women in the BJP. "He must mind his tongue," she said. "His utterances were not at all in good taste." But she also blamed the women in the party for not resisting the unjust steps taken by the ruling BJP. "I, in fact, called a meeting of BJP women when Renukacharaya and others were pressing for Shobha Karandlaje's removal," she said. "We could have taken a delegation to Delhi to save her, but nobody turned up. What is the use of shedding tears now?"

It is a different story that amid all this, Yeddyurappa may be in no position to take any kind of action on the Shetty allegations, as he is yet to fully consolidate his position after just about managing to save his chair.

The crossfire
Criticising senior leaders, Renukacharya recently said, "A particular leader is showering favours on Bharathi Shetty. She is an MLC, apart from being president of the Mahila Morcha. She has been given three petrol bunks. That is because of her close proximity to some people, while the others are not so privileged."

Reacting to this, Bharathi Shetty said, "Doesn't he have sisters? Being a people's representative how can he speak in such bad taste about women?" Speaking to MiD DAY on Shetty's charge, Renukacharaya said, "My critiscism was based on issues and I am not against women. I know I must respect women and I am doing it.

But, what is happening in BJP is something different and I had to raise my voice against it."