BS Yeddyurappa's dream team: Karjol and Shobha to lead pack?

BENGALURU: With his sights set on elections to the Legislative Assembly in 2018, state BJP president B. S. Yeddyurappa has commenced the process to knit together a new team of office bearers for the state and district units.

Sources close to Mr Yeddyurappa told Deccan Chronicle that central leaders of BJP have given the green signal to the former CM to reconstitute the party at and district levels. These new office bearers would be appointed within a month and the core committee, which has not been reconstituted for several years, would also get a new look. The existing core committee had attracted flak because of regional imbalance and also for having loyalists of one senior leader. Former chief ministers, former deputy chief ministers, former BJP state unit presidents and organizing secretary continuing are the core committee members There is a demand to reconstitute the core committee. The party’s dalit face, Aravind Limbavali, MP Shobha Karandlaje, former minister Govinda Karjol are aspirants for the core committee, sources added.  More importantly, since party central leadership has appointed incumbent organising secretary Santosh as national joint secretary and made him in-charge of southern states, for his place RSS has suggested the name of Arun Kumar, the Sangh Pracharak of Dharwad district. Existing office bearers at state and district levels were appointed by Mr Yeddyurappa’s predecessor, Mr  Pralhad Joshi.

A majority of the office bearers were hand picked by the party’s organizing secretary Santosh. When Mr Yeddyurappa left the party and floated his own political outfit, the organizing secretary built the party with help of young turks. Now with the return of Mr Yeddyurappa as state unit president, changes are imminent.