A day after the panchayat and taluk elections were announced in Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari asked the state cabinet ministers to bury their differences with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
Members of the Karnataka cabinet said Gadkari and state in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan met the ministers and important state leaders this morning asking them to come together and ensure a good performance in the elections.
“The idea of the meet was that we should all keep aside our differences for the next one month and concentrate on the upcoming elections. These elections have now become a prestige issue for BJP because if the party does well, it would mean that the people are still supporting us but if we do miserably then it could indicate that we have lost support to Congress and JD(S) at the grassroot level because of the recent corruption charges against the government,” said a cabinet minister of Karnataka.
Following the tussle between Yeddyurappa, BJP’s central leadership and state members, the core group of the party has decided to tighten the noose around the chief minister and has appointed Arun Jaitley to end factionalism in the state.
Senior Karnataka BJP members said, of the 30 districts in the state, the party could do well in 18-20 districts, especially in northern Karnataka which is dominated by the Lingayat community.