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Buoyed by the sops he rolled out to people in the budget for the coming year, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is gearing himself to lead the party in the elections.

With the party’s central leaders already declaring Shettar as the chief ministerial candidate, he has the onus of leading the party. In such a scenario, what will be the role of the State party president? Also, will the party appoint a new president in place of K S Eshwarappa?

None in the party has answers to these questions. The State party president’s post has lost sheen with Shettar already being projected as the chief ministerial candidate.

As a prelude to the polls and to exhibit his commitment to North Karnataka, Shettar has come out with a lot of goodies, including formation of 43 taluks and making available rice at Rs two a kg for the poor.

Shettar, when contacted, said, “I have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the party in the next polls. I am the chief minister and naturally I will have to lead the party,” he said.

Asked whether the party would get a new State president, he said there was no final word on it yet.

Replying to a question, he said there had been positive responses to the budget proposals he had presented.

“People are appreciating the formation of new taluks and other welfare measures,” he said.

Rath yatra

After the conclusion of the on-going legislature session next week, it will be time for the BJP to devote more time for planning public contact programmes, including the rath yatra.
But it looks like, Eshwarappa is still cut up with the party for not projecting him as the chief ministerial candidate. He is also not aware of the rath yatra being planned by the party.

Prahlad Joshi, BJP MP from Dharwad, said the yatra would commence from five places in the State in the first week of March.

“Earlier we had planned to begin the yatra from February 17. But it has been rescheduled for March. We are yet to fix the date, “ he said.

Joshi said Shettar, Ananth Kumar, Eshwarappa, Sadananda Gowda and R Ashoka would be leading the yatras from five different places.

“We have plans to cover all the 224 Assembly constituencies over a period of 15 to 17 days. The yatras will serve as the election campaign,” he said.

Shettar said the party was yet to chalk out the plans for taking out the yatra.
Eshwarappa, being the president, said he was unaware of any yatra being planned.
“Who says there is going to be any yatra?” he shot back.

To a question whether he would continue as the president, he said, “I have already made it clear to the party that I will give up the post of either the president or deputy chief minister. It is not possible to shoulder both the responsibilities.”