Housing Minister V Somanna on Thursday said he had decided to stay with the BJP as he had already been branded a party-hopper.
Speaking at a workers’ convention organised in front of his residence in Vijayanagar, Somanna said he would contest the Assembly polls from Govindarajnagar on the BJP ticket. In his political career Somanna has hopped from the undivided Janata Dal to the Congress, and then to the BJP. Till Sunday, political circles were rife with speculation that he would be joining B S Yeddyurappa’s KJP.
On Monday, Somanna had publicly announced that he would remain with the BJP. Somanna turned emotional when he recalled that he had tried his best to convince Yeddyurappa to remain with the BJP. “I sincerely hope that Yeddyurappa will one day come back to the BJP,” he said.
Patch up
Somanna and party senior leader Ananth Kumar seem to have tided over their difference over the choice of the next Bangalore mayor as the latter presided over the workers’ convention.
The duo was not in talking terms for some time as differences arose following Somanna and Kumar lobbying for their candidates for the mayor’s post.
The duo buried the hatchet considering their electoral interest. The support of Somanna is essential for Kumar, who represents the Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, in the 2014 general elections and vice-versa. Somanna’s strongholds of Vijayanagar and Govindarajnagar come under the constituency.
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