Hit by a barrage of allegations of corruption and intense power struggle among its leaders, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka is holding a two-day brainstorming session to give lessons on morality and discipline to its legislators from Friday.
The 'Chintan Manthan' will engage in serious talk with MLAs, MLCs and MPs at a private resort here to refurbish the party's image which took a severe beating recently after the porn row that took place inside the assembly.
Concerned over the plummeting popularity graph of the party's first ever government in the south with at least half a dozen ministers and as many legislators facing allegations of misuse of authority, acts of favouritism and nepotism, the BJP high command is going all out to set its house in order.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari will address the meeting on Friday. The meeting comes at a time when the state unit is divided between former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his successor D V Sadananda Gowda.
Party sources say Gadkari, who is busy in the elections being held in five states in North, would be returning to Delhi on Friday.
On the eve of the session, Yeddyurappa hosted a lunch for legislators in a show of strength and to send a signal to his party high command that he should either be reinstated as chief minister or given some "position".
The faction loyal to Yeddyurappa, is said to be gunning for the ouster of Gowda, whom it propped up to the post six months ago, denying the chief ministership to rival faction leader Jagadish Shettar.
The former chief minister, who is reported to be unhappy with Sadananda Gowda over his continuance in the post, roped in Shettar and Home Minister R Ashoka to put up a united challenge.
Seeking to play-down the meet, state BJP President K S Eshwarappa said, "We discussed the current political situation, on the coming Udupi-Chikamagalur Lok Sabha byelection and on strengthening the party organisation."
The issue of giving "position" to Yeddyurappa did not come up for discussion, he added.
Sources in the BJP say the party central leadership is unlikely to accept the demands of Yeddyurappa in the wake of pending corruption cases in courts.
The BJP high command, which had forced Yeddyurappa to quit in August last after his indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, is in no mood to go in for another round of change in leadership, fearing that such an exercise might hurt its image further.
The BJP has held at least two such sessions in the last three-and-half years to discipline its legislators, but the exercise seems to have had no effect.
The power struggle is only increasing as also the legal troubles for partymen over corruption charges.
