He was speaking at a convention of his followers organised by the taluk BJP unit at Shikaripur in the district. Addressing the gathering, he said “BJP is my house. Let others quit the party, I don’t mind. I will be in active politics till my last breath. I am not scared of any kind of conspiracy.”

He said: “Chief Ministers Jayalalitha and Sheila Dikshit are facing criminal charges. But, they have not resigned from the top post. However, I had to step down from the post due to the direction from the party’s Central leaders. Neither am I eyeing the post of State BJP President nor that of the chief minister. I will tour the entire State as a loyal party worker. I don’t need to take permission from anybody for this.”

‘Not campaigning’
On the Bellary bypoll, he said: “I am not taking part in the bypoll campaign for a special reason. However, the party leaders should not think otherwise. If I am harassed for skipping the campaign, I may quit politics in the near future. But, I will wait and watch the attitude of the party leaders carefully.”

Exuding confidence about BJP’s victory in the bypoll, he said: “Our candidate Gadilingappa will emerge victorious in the bypoll. Unfortunately, people of Bellary haven’t got real freedom yet. I wish they ‘relish’ freedom this time. This byelection won’t have any impact on the State government.”

PWD Minister C M Udasi, Rajya Sabha member Ayanur Manjunath, Lok Sabha member B Y Raghavendra, MLAs H Halappa, Belur Gopalakrishna, K G Kumaraswamy, MLC Bharati Shetty, MPM Chairman Araga Jnanendra, Bhadra Command Area Development Authority Chairman K Shekharappa, State Urdu Academy Chairman Amjad Hussain, District BJP President R K Siddaramanna and others were present.

Thousands of BJP activists from Shimoga and Haveri districts participated in the event.

A divided house
The event made it clear that the BJP is a divided house in the district. State BJP President K S Eshwarappa, who is also the Shimoga City MLA, and his followers did not take part in the event.