Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Friday formally took control of the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) by making his close aide and former Union minister V Dhananjay Kumar its new president.
Kumar was unanimously elected as the president in the party’s executive committee meeting at Yeddyurappa’s office in Malleswaram. The founder president Padmanabh Prasanna handed over the reins of the party to Kumar.
Prasanna will now be playing a second fiddle to Kumar as he was appointed as the vice-president along with former minister K H Srinivas and apex bank chairman Manjunath Gowda.
Kumar’s new role is likely to be temporary as Yeddyurappa will be taking over as the president of the KJP at the December 9 rally in Haveri.
“The KJP is going to emerge as an alternative to the BJP and Congress in Karnataka by involving all sections of the society,” Kumar announced immediately after his election.
Stating that the national parties had failed to protect the interests of the state, Kumar said, “Time and again it has been proved that national parties cannot protect state’s interest. The recent Cauvery issue is an example. So we are confident that the people will support KJP and bring it to power.”
He added that Yeddyurappa will join KJP and lead it in the next Assembly elections. Yeddyurappa is expected to replace Kumar at the December 9 rally in Haveri.
“The party has already applied for the symbol and within 15 days it would get one. We have sought cycle or the image of farmer with a plough or rising sun as symbol,” he added.
KHDB MD Refuses to Resign
Meanwhile, Karnataka Handloom Development Board (KHDB) M D Lakshminarayan who has been appointed as the state general secretary of the KJP has refused to resign from his council membership.
“The Governor has nominated me to the Upper House considering my social service. I had resigned from the BJP at the time of my nomination. So the question of me resigning does not arise at all,” he said.
The state BJP has decided to write to CM Jagadish Shettar asking him to sack Lakshminarayan from KHDB MD’s office.
KJP OFFICE-BEARERS
V Dhananjay Kumar (President)
K H Srinivas, Manjunath Gowda, Shakuntala Beldale (Vice-presidents)
MD Lakshminarayan (General Secretary)
KP Siddalingaswamy, Madan Patel, Sebastian Anthony, Mohammad Nazir (Secretaries)
SN Eshwar (Treasurer)
Tippanna Kamakanur, Kumar Aishwarya, KN Puttabuddi, H Subbaiah Shetty, Nandkumar, HK Purushottam, DR Shivkumargowda, former MLA Basavaraju, Mariyamma Thomas, Mahammed Salim (Executive Committee Members)
Nagaraj Malldi (President of State KJP SC Morcha)