BJP picks Javadekar, Jaitley as K'taka, Gujarat poll in-charge

Piyush Goyal to assist HRD minister in his Karnataka affairs

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javedekar was on Thursday named BJP’s in-charge of Karnataka Assembly elections, scheduled early next year.

Javadekar will be assisted by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on his maiden Karnataka poll assignment. The two ministers had similarly supervised preparation for the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.

“People want a change in Karnataka. The BJP has tremendous support in the state and the party has a very strong team there. We will together handle the responsibility bestowed on us by the party,” Javadekar said.

Though Javadekar has never had a chance to associate with Karnataka elections, the minister said a close aide of his hails from adjoining Maharashtra and has fair knowledge about South India.

Javadekar was entrusted with the task of reaching
out to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring states on the first anniversary of the
Modi government, his aide added.

Language vs Hindutva

BJP president Amit Shah’s choice of election managers comes two days ahead of a meeting of Karnataka state core group in Delhi, to outline the broad contours of the party strategy with the Congress trying to pitch Kannadiga pride against Hindutva.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is also reviving old cases against BJP’s poll mascot B S Yeddurappa, a concern that the BJP leaders will have to address.

Other senior BJP ministers too were assigned work in poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, aided by four top leaders — Nirmala Sitharaman, Jitendra Singh, Narendra Singh Tomar and P P Chaudhary — will oversee Gujarat. Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot will be in charge of Himachal Pradesh.

The BJP has relied on Jaitley’s past experience of managing Gujarat polls and renominated him. Similar is the case with Nirmala.

Shah’s heavy deployment in his and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat assumes importance due to the difficult target of 150 seats to win in the assembly election, which the party had not managed even when Modi ruled the state for years.

Humbling experience

The party top brass, said sources, would also like to avenge its recent humbling experience during the Rajya Sabha poll in the state.

Despite exercising might, the BJP could not stop
Congress leader Ahmed Patel from winning a fifth term in the Upper House of Parliament.