Kateel can’t win polls, why keep him chief: BJP seniors

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Close on the heels of a series of defeats in the recent Assembly by-polls and Legislative Council elections, senior BJP leaders are demanding the scalp of Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel for his reported inability to handle party affairs effectively.

It is almost two years since Kateel took over as BJP President from former CM B.S.Yediyurappa. Being young, active and close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, there was a lot of expectation from him but he failed to achieve any remarkable victory in most of the elections held in the last two years.

During the Hosakote Assembly bypoll, BJP candidate M.T.B.Nagaraj had brought to Kateel’s notice the fact that Chikkaballapur MP B.N. Bache Gowda was tacitly working for his son and Congress candidate, Sharath Bachchegowda. But the complaint was not taken seriously and Nagaraj lost the election.

Recently, Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi encouraged his brother, Lakhan Jarkiholi to contest as an independent candidate in the Council poll from Belagavi, against the official BJP candidate, Mahantesh Kavatagimath who lost. Local BJP leaders brought this to the notice of Kateel after they suspected something fishy in Ramesh’s request to voters to vote for Mahantesh and Lakhan.

In Haveri, Mallikarjun entered the fray as an independent candidate from Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri constituency against BJP candidate, Pradeep Shettar, brother of former CM, Jagadish Shettar. The reported request by Shettar to expel Mallikarjun from the BJP fell on deaf ears. The rebel candidate contested and took away over 1,000 votes which would otherwise have gone to the BJP.

Fireworks expected

The BJP Core Committee meeting slated for December 28 to conduct a postmortem of the Council results, is expected to be stormy as party candidates have lost in both Belagavi and Mysuru which were considered strong citadels of the saffron party. Senior leaders are expected to take the state BJP chief to task for his failure to discharge his duty effectively in the last two years.

Who will replace Kateel?

The names of Chikkamagaluru MLA, C.T.Ravi, Malleswaram MLA and Minister Dr.C.N. Ashwathnarayana are doing the rounds for party state president. Ravi is close to RSS pramukhs and is the in-charge of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit. Dr Ashwathnarayana is soft spoken and considered a good organizer. But both belong to the Vokkaliga community. The BJP is interested in handing over the mantle to young Lingayat leader and Dharwad MLA Arvind Bellad but a decision is expected only after the Assembly election in several states including Uttar Pradesh.