No rest or honeymoon till bypolls, BSY tells leaders

No rest or honeymoon till May 19. This was the blunt message state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa on Friday gave to the state party leaders.

Chairing the state BJP election management committee meeting to draw up a strategy for Assembly bypolls, Kundagol and Chincholi, at the party office, Yeddyurappa said nobody should even talk of
“rest or honeymoon” till May 19. The bypolls are a must-win for the Bharatiya Janata Party, he added.

The byelections are scheduled for May 19. The results of will be announced on May 23, along with Lok Sabha elections.

The mood is the state is in favour of the BJP. The party will win more than 22 parliamentary seats in Karnataka. Big leaders of the rival parties, including Mallikarjuna Kharge, K H Muniyappa, Veerappa Moily (all Congress) and H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), will lose.

The JD(S)-Congress coalition government will not survive once the results of Lok Sabha elections are announced. The party has to be prepared for any eventuality, he said.

Ticket aspirants upset

Sunil Valyyapure, who was aspiring to contest from Chincholi, and M R Patil, who wanted to contest from Kundagol, are said to be upset with the party for denying them the tickets.

The party has decided to field S I Chikkanagoudar from Kundagol. It will soon announce its nominee from Chincholi. Umesh Jadhav’s brother Ramachandra Jadhav and son Avinash are in race for Chincholi.

Umesh Jadhav had quit the Congress recently and contested against Kharge in Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency as the BJP candidate.

It is learnt that Yeddyurappa has pacified Sunil by promising him to make an MLC, while Patil has been assured the party ticket in the next Assembly election from Kundagol.