BENGALURU: Many senior BJP leaders have raised the banner of revolt, especially after the announcement of the second list of candidates for the May 10 Assembly elections.
On Thursday, several leaders, including MLAs and members of local bodies resigned from the party and openly expressed displeasure against the leadership for not giving them an opportunity to contest the elections.
Mudigere MLA MP Kumaraswamy has resigned and Haveri MLA Nehru Olekar has announced that he will quit. The party leadership gave tickets to Deepak Doddaiah ignoring Kumaraswamy and to Gavisiddappa Dyamannavar in place of Olekar.
Nine BJP councillors from Shivamogga City Corporation, all followers of senior BJP leader KS Eshwarappa, resigned accusing the party of double standards.
Former deputy chief minister Lakshman Savadi announced that he will quit BJP on Friday. Hosadurga MLA Goolihatti Shekar may also resign soon. He is likely to join Gali Janardhan Reddy’s new party.
NR Santosh, a ticket aspirant from Arsikere in Hassan district and a relative of former CM BS Yediyurappa, is likely to resign on Friday. His followers staged a protest against the party on Thursday. On Wednesday, MLC R Nagesh resigned from the party and council membership
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Complaining about the manner in which the ticket aspirants were treated by the BJP leadership, a leader said, “When Yediyurappa was at the helm of affairs, he used to personally call and speak to leaders and workers. He used to talk to all and ensure that they work for the party. That is not the case now.”
BJP national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Arun Singh told The New Indian Express that four to five aspirants had applied for tickets from each constituency. “If they fail to get tickets, their followers will also get upset. The party expected it. In BJP, we all work as per its ideology. Of the 212 candidates announced so far, 66 are new faces. Our idea is to give a chance to new faces and also respect elders,”
he said.