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The BJP got a shot in the arm at the weekend when prominent Janata Dal (S) leader and zilla panchayat member Amrut Desai joined the party along with his supporters.
Desai, a lingayat from Hangaraki village in Dharwad taluk has considerable clout in the rural part of Dharwad assembly constituency. Son of former MLA A B Desai, he joined the saffron party at a time when Congress candidate Vinay Kulkarni was trying to consolidate Lingayat voters in his favour.
Desai joined the BJP in presence of the former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and other leaders at a public meeting at Hurakaldi Ajja College grounds here. BJP state president Prahlad Joshi welcomed him into the party.
Speaking on the occasion, Desai said he was joining the BJP on the wishes of his supporters. Without mentioning the name of JD(S), Desai said the regional parties had no future and hence he decided to join a national party to carry out development works.
The JD(S) does not seem to have taken Dharwad constituency seriously as its leaders told the ticket aspirants clearly that they should not expect any financial support from the party and should manage funds from their own sources. It will not be a surprise if Hanumant Bankapur who is in the fray as the JD(S) candidate retires from the fray in favour of the BJP.
“Our family has been opposed to the Congress since the days of my grandfather and hence there was no question of me joining the Congress. The only alternative was BJP and Modi’s vision for the nation attracted me to the BJP,” Desai told Business Standard.
Desai was the lone JD(S) zilla panchayat member representing the Gadag constituency. He had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections from the Dharwad assembly constituency in 2009 and 2013. In the last assembly elections, he had received over 21,000 votes and emerged runner-up pushing the then sitting MLA Seema Masuti of the BJP to third place. Here, the Congress candidate Vinay Kulkarni who is now contesting the parliamentary elections had won.
Earlier, in February, Ismail Tamatagar who was the JD(S) candidate for Hubli-Dahrwad West constituency in the last assembly elections too had deserted the party to join the Congress. Thus, the JD(S) has lost two prominent leaders within a span of one month.
