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Forms three teams for State tour

In an effort to prevent factional feuds from marring the party’s tour programme scheduled to commence on Tuesday, the State unit of BJP on Monday formed three teams led by three different leaders and asked them to travel separately.

B S Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda and H N Ananth Kumar will lead each of these three teams. The relationship between Yeddyurappa and Gowda has become strained and they are not even on talking terms of late,  Ananth Kumar is an old foe of Yeddyurappa.

Team Yeddyurappa will be the first to launch the tour on August 21 from Tumkur. The party will shortly chalk out the tour programmes for Gowda and Kumar. The decision to form three teams was taken at the party’s State office-bearers’ meeting.
The tour has a twin objective of assessing the drought situation and organising the party.

 A few days ago the party had announced that all the leaders will tour together – in a move to counter Yeddyurappa’s plan to tour separately. But, with the leaders refusing to see eye to eye, the party thought it better to keep them separate. And in order to cover the fissures within the party, it formed separate teams, sources said.

Briefing the media about the meeting, State BJP general secretary and the party MP Prahlad Joshi, however, defended the decision to conduct the tour in three separate teams saying that all the leaders were consulted before finalising the tour plan.
 “Moreover, the State is too big for a single team to cover. Hence, three teams have been formed,” he added.

Besides, the chief minister and two deputy chief ministers will also tour separately to assess the drought situation and take steps to provide relief to  affected people. The party and the government will work together in ensuring that drought-related works are implemented effectively, he added.

This apart, Joshi said, the farmers’ wing of the State BJP will organise a State-wide agitation, protesting the steep hike in fertiliser prices. The party  also scheduled the State executive committee meetings of the women wing and youth wing. The State Executive Committee meeting will be held on October 8. A membership drive will be conducted between September 9 and 16, he added.