“High Command Favors Okkaliga for BJP State President and Lingayat for Opposition Leader”
Bengaluru, June 14: BJP is likely to finalize the name of Leader of Opposition and party state president by the end of this week as the Karnataka Legislative Assembly session approaches.
Party sources said the high command favored a Lingayat-Okkaliga combination for higher posts. A month after the results of the assembly elections, the BJP has not chosen the leader of the opposition. The outrage of the party workers on this issue is being expressed on social media.
However, BJP state leaders said that the party leaders will announce the names in the next two days. A BJP leader told the ‘New Indian Express’ newspaper that the high command should announce the names without delay.
Top leaders have a few names in mind and said they have received feedback from party MLAs, MLCs, district presidents and other leaders.
BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel’s term ends in August 2022. Due to assembly elections, his tenure was extended. BJP will have a new president after four years.
The names of former ministers Sunil Kumar and Dr CN Aswath Narayan have been heard. However, it is being said that Dr CN Aswath Narayan, who belongs to the Okkaliga community, can be made the party president.
Sources in the party said that there is a possibility that the high command will choose Basanagowda Patil Yatnal, a Lingayat community MLA from Vijayapura, as the leader of the opposition in the assembly. Arvind Bellad, another Lingayat MLA of BJP, is also in the fray.
Sources said that the party high command wanted a Lingayat-Vokkaliga combination to woo the voters of Karnataka’s big time Lingayat and Okkaliga communities.
Assembly polls have shown that while Okkaliga votes have shifted from JD(S) to Congress, Lingayat voters have moved away from BJP. Also, by electing Aswath Narayan from Malleswaram in Bengaluru and Yatnal from Vijayapur in North Karnataka, the party may face region-wise distribution as well, sources said.
