The BSP could face dissidence before it could gear up for Assembly elections.
BSP supremo Mayawati dropped a bombshell at the public meeting on Sunday. She relieved B Gopal from the ‘additional burden’ of State president and ‘promoted’ him as Central Executive Committee member.
Ahead of polls, Mayawati played the caste card by making M S Muniyappa the State BSP president.
BSP insiders said this has been done to counter the Congress which has appointed backward community leader Mallikarjuna Kharge. Muniyappa is from Madiga community, the most backward even among the scheduled castes.
“By giving Muniyappa a major responsibility, Behenji has given an indication the party is for dalits and other down-trodden community,” said a top State BSP functionary.
Gopal was translating Mayawati’s speech when she announced the appointment of Gopal as CEC member, P G R Sindhia as national general secretary and Muniyappa as the State president.
He could not translate the lines uttered by Mayawati on Gopal and Muniyappa’s appointment. From there onwards, he committed several mistakes in translating her Hindi speech into Kannada.