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Bommai on Yediyurappa's wish to vacate seat for son in 2023: 'He never retires'
The assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled for early 2023.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday asserted that his party will fight the upcoming assembly polls under the guidance of senior BJP leader and his predecessor BS Yediyurappa, who has expressed his wish of vacating his assembly seat for his son with speculations rife about his retirement from electoral politics.
Earlier in the day, B S Yediyurappa, former chief minister of Karnataka, said his son and party's state vice-president B Y Vijayendra will be contesting the 2023 Assembly polls from his Shikaripura constituency which, he said, he would be vacating. "I'm not contesting, Vijayendra will be contesting from Shikaripura. I pray to the people of Shikaripura with folded hands to make him victorious with a margin bigger than mine," Yediyurappa said.
Hours later, Bommai -- who was in Delhi -- was quoted as telling reporters: “He never retires. Yediyurappa has never retired. In the next elections, his strength and guidance will be there.” He also called Yediyurappa a "fatherly figure" and said that the central leaders know about that, reported news agency PTI.
Bommai is in the national capital to attend the farewell dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for outgoing president Ram Nath Kovind.
Yediyurappa's son Vijayendra was reportedly denied an MLC ticket by the central leadership in late May at the time of the biennial elections. He was later appointed as the party's state vice President
The assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled for early 2023. The BJP has said it is confident of winning another term.
(With inputs from PTI)
