Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sadananda Gowda clarified that he will not be quitting the party and admitted that he was reached out to by the Congress to join. Gowda stressed that there is a need to cleanse the Karnataka BJP internally, taking an indirect dig at key leaders in the state.
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Speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru, the former union minister said, “It is a matter of fact that I was unhappy with the BJP’s decision of dropping me from Bengaluru North Lok Sabha constituency. But that does not mean I will leave the BJP and join in another party. The Congress has reached out to me, but I refused to join. I want to see Narendra Modi as Prime Minister once again.”
Gowda also soft slammed the state unit of BJP and said that there is a need to “cleanse” his own party. “The BJP in Karnataka is being controlled by a single family which is not how the BJP fundamentally works. There is a need to cleanse the functionary methods, and I will stay in the party to do that. There is no question of me leaving the party,” he said.
Sadananda Gowda is the current Member of Parliament (MP) from Bengaluru North, where the BJP allotted a ticket to Shobha Karandlaje, the MP from Udupi-Chikkamagulur. Karandlaje, who is a close aide to BS Yediyurappa’s family, was moved to Bengaluru North to field Kota Srinivas Poojary, the ex-BJP minister from Udupi-Chikkamagulur.
{{/usCountry}}Sadananda Gowda is the current Member of Parliament (MP) from Bengaluru North, where the BJP allotted a ticket to Shobha Karandlaje, the MP from Udupi-Chikkamagulur. Karandlaje, who is a close aide to BS Yediyurappa’s family, was moved to Bengaluru North to field Kota Srinivas Poojary, the ex-BJP minister from Udupi-Chikkamagulur.
{{/usCountry}}The supporters of Sadananda Gowda allege that only to accommodate Shobha Karandlaje, who is non-local in Bengaluru North, the former was dropped from the contenders' list. The BJP has dropped at least eight sitting MPs from the Lok Sabha contest and fielded new faces in Karnataka. The BJP has only announced 20 names for Lok Sabha polls and the second list from the state is expected to be out today.
Elections for 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka will be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7.