E-Paper
Bangarappa's son denied ticket, quits BJP
Kumar Bangarappa, son of former Karnataka CM S. Bangarappa, quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he was denied the ticket.
Kumar Bangarappa, son of former Karnataka chief minister S. Bangarappa, Thursday quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he was denied the ticket to contest the coming state assembly elections.
Kumar, who joined the BJP with his father March 3, said he would decide his next course of action after consulting his friends and followers.
He had been hoping the BJP would field him from his hometown Sorab in Shimoga district, 300 km from here, for the polls.
Piqued by the BJP's decision to field his younger brother Madhu Bangarappa as the candidate from Sorab which he represented in the dissolved house, Kumar accused the party of ignoring the interests of backward classes and minorities in selecting nominees for the elections.
Polls to choose a new state assembly in Karnataka will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
"I am distressed to notice that there is no place for backward classes and minorities in the BJP, which favours the upper castes to meet its own political agenda," Kumar told a gathering of about 10,000 people, including his supporters, in Sorab.
As one of the politically dominant families from Shimoga, the Bangarappas belong to the Idiga community, which is among the backward classes.
According to his followers here, Kumar is weighing the option of either returning to the Congress or joining the Janata Dal-Secular to contest again from Sorab.
"In case it does not serve his political cause, Kumar may stand as an independent candidate to take on his brother and father, who is contesting from the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency on the BJP ticket," a source said.
Kumar who was not available for comment, had served as minister of state for municipal administration in the government headed by Chief Minister S.M. Krishna before he quit the Congress to join the BJP like is father.
The Congress party expelled the duo for six years for indulging in anti-party activities.
The BJP as well as S. Bangarappa declined to comment on Kumar's decision.
"You are asking the right question to a wrong person," S. Bangarappa retorted when reporters sought from him the reason for Kumar's decision to quit the BJP.
Ever since the BJP's provisional list of candidates from Shimoga district was announced early this week, simmering differences surfaced between loyal BJP followers and new converts from the Congress like the Bangarappas, indicating all was not honky dory in the party.
