Karnataka CM Basvaraj Bommai is poised to chair the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign committee for the upcoming state Assembly polls, a list released by the party’s central unit said on Friday.
Union Ministers Shobha Karandlaje and Bhagvanta Kubha will be the convener and co-convenor of the election management committee respectively. Apart from Bommai, the campaign committee will have the veteran leader and former Chief Minister of State BS Yediyurappa Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, A Narayanaswamy, party’s state unit president Nalin Kateel, former central minister DV Sadananda Gowda, former state minister Eshwrappa, and former CM Jagdish Shettar.
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State ministers R Ashok, and Ashwathnarayan Sriramulu are also on the panel.
Former CM Yeddiyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra who is the state vice president is also part of this committee. Vijayendra has already been made the convenor of all the morchas in view of the ensuing polls.
Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan has also been made part of the campaign committee. Another name on this list is that of former state minister and party’s National General Secretary CT Ravi.
The Shobha Karandlaje-led poll management panel will have state leaders like Ashwathnarayan, Siddharaju and Ravi Kumar, who are all state general secretaries.
One prominent name on the list is that of Tejaswi Ananth Kumar, wife of deceased Union Minister Ananth Kumar.
The announcement by BJP national president JP Nadda came within weeks of the Assembly elections in the State, where the ruling BJP will be locked in a fierce political battle with the grand old party, Congress.
The ruling party is pinning its hopes in the upcoming polls on the experience of Yediyurappa, who has had a political career full of twists and turns and controversies too.
Yediyurappa is believed to play a cardinal role in bringing the BJP to power in 2008 for the first time in Karnataka.
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He resigned in 2011 as the Chief Minister after being allegedly involved in a case of corruption only to be acquitted in 2016. After forming his own political outfit, he after a brief period merged it with BJP and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Shimogga and won the same.
Yediyurappa later contested to win the 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls when he took oath as Chief Minister for two days and then resigned because the party was unable to prove a majority.
In another turn of events a year later, Yediyurappa was able to stage a coup and 18 MLAs defected to join in BJP from the opposition Congress and he in a coalition with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) took oath as a Chief Minister for the fourth time in his career.
In another turn of events in July 2021, the veteran leader under the instructions of the party’s top brass stepped down as Chief Minister and paved the way for Basvaraj Bommai. Yediyurappa has also served as the BJP Karnataka president on three occasions.
