BENGALURU: The BJP state core committee meeting on Tuesday is likely to discuss the party’s performance in the recent bypolls and corrective measures required to be taken ahead of a series of elections in the state. In the bypolls, the party failed to retain Hanagal Assembly segment in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s home district Haveri, while it managed to win Sindagi by a big margin.
BJP National General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh, who arrived in the city on Monday evening to attend the core committee meeting, told the media that Bommai, ministers and party leaders had worked hard to ensure the victory of Shivaraj Sajjanar in Hanagal, but they lost by a narrow margin.
Singh accused the Congress of spreading rumours about leadership change in Karnataka. “The Congress is spreading rumours about a change of our state unit president and the CM. The Congress has lost its relevance across the country and its leaders in the state are spreading such rumours,” he added. He also dismissed the Congress allegations in the Bitcoin case. “Bommai has taken prompt action in the case,” he said.
Singh said that during Tuesday’s meeting, they will discuss measures to further strengthen the party organisation at the booth level, preparations for zilla and taluk panchayat elections. The meeting will be attended by Singh, Basavaraj Bommai, BJP state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel and other senior leaders. They are likely to analyse reasons for the party’s failure to retain the Hanagal seat despite the CM himself camping in the constituency for over a week. Many in the party consider the bypoll result as a wake-up call to the party ahead of a series of elections.