Miffed Eshwarappa Likely to Skip PM Modi’s Mega Shivamogga Event Today in Karnataka
The Karnataka BJP unit leaders claimed a turnout of 2.5 lakh people in the programme which will begin at 2 pm at the Allama Prabhu ground in this home district of ex-Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, the party’s tallest leader in the state.
In a massive pull for the BJP, senior BJP leader and former Karnataka deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa will not participate in the public event, as he remained ‘adamant’ on giving the event a miss, despite the saffron party’s efforts to placate him.
Miffed over ticket denial to his son KE Kantesh, Eshwarappa will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Shivamogga constituency, from where the BJP has fielded BY Raghavendra, the elder son of Yediyurappa, the former Karnataka Chief Minister.
Raghavendra is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) from the Shivamogga seat, while his brother BY Vijayendra is the BJP’s Karnataka unit president, and the sitting legislator from their father’s bastion of Shikaripura.
Eshwarappa’s ‘Family-Politics’ Jibe at Yediyurappa
“PM Narendra Modi should come to power again and the party must be free from the control of the Yediyurappa family. Hence, I am contesting the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP in Karnataka is becoming family-controlled, just like the ruling Congress,” Eshwarappa told reporters on Sunday.
Karnataka accounts for 28 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP, along with an independent, won 26 constituencies, and the Congress-JD(S) combine bagged the remaining two seats.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases from April 19 till June 1. The counting of votes and declaration of result for all 543 seats will be done on June 4.
