Is BSY’s rising son Vijayendra behind ‘advisor reshuffle’?
BENGALURU:
In a move that points to some behind-the-scenes string-pulling, former Director of the Department of Information and Public Relations N Bhrungeesh has been appointed as the new media advisor to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. A government order to this effect was issued on Wednesday.
Even before his retirement from the DIPR, Bhrungeesh had worked in the capacity of ‘media secretary’ to the CM. Bhrungeesh is known as a quiet and efficient officer, and has also been a media advisor to former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
The appointment is to fill the ‘vacancy’ caused by the resignation of the CM’s media advisor Mahadev Prakash, who quit the post citing personal reasons.
Meanwhile, another senior journalist MB Maramkal has been sacked from the post of political advisor to the Chief Minister.
There is speculation that Yediyurappa’s politically ambitious son BY Vijayendra, who was recently appointed vice-president of the state BJP by national president JP Nadda, did not want either Prakash or Maramkal to get ‘too close’ to the CM, and was behind their ouster.
‘Shobha in the cold’
Similar factors seem to have been in play in the case of former minister and current MP from Udupi-Chikkamagalur Shobha Karandlaje, once widely seen as a close confidante of Yediyurappa and now ‘distanced’ from the inner circle of the CM.
