BJP blows away BSY men

[1]

Sending out a tough message to loyalists of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP state president K.S. Eshwarappa said none of them would get tickets in the Assembly polls.

Speaking to reporters before inaugurating a meeting of the BJP Morchas at the party office on Monday, Mr Eshwarappa ruled out BJP tickets for MLAs Haratal Halappa, B.P. Harish, D. Suresh and Nehru Olekar who have openly identified with Mr Yeddyurappa.

“The party has made it clear that, if any MLA, minister or MP participates in the Haveri launch programme of Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), they wil face action.

The party has decided to give tickets to all sitting MLAs but those identified with BSY will not get tickets”, Mr Eshwarappa added.

Explaining the preparations for the 2013 general elections, he said: “We conducted a series of meetings with party functionaries.

At the party Morchas meeting, we will give them the responsibility of organizing functions at the Hobli and booth level,” Mr Eshwarappa explained.

Hitting back at opposition leader Siddaramaiah on his statement that more than ten BJP MLAs are in touch with the Congress to secure poll tickets, the BJP president said: “The Opposition leader has achieved nothing. He became powerful in Congress and JD(S) by adopting blackmail tactics”.

He wanted Siddaramaiah to disclose the names of the BJP MLAs who had approached him seeking entry into the Congress. “I want him to name at least two BJP MLAs who approached him, or else he should stop issuing baseless statements”, Mr Eshwarappa said.

Deputy CM R.Ashok indirectly criticised Mr Yeddyurappa saying, “Party workers need not worry about leaders who leave BJP. Our party is like a banyan tree, we need not worry about the loss of one branch”. He called on party workers to concentrate on the coming polls.