BJP says no proposal for poll tie-up with KJP

BJP State President Pralhad Joshi on Thursday said the state unit of the party had no proposal for entering into an electoral alliance with the KJP.

Replying to queries from reporters about KJP President B S Yeddyurappa’s proposal for a grand alliance of Opposition parties to take on the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, Joshi said, "It is Yeddyurappa's personal views. The State BJP has no such proposal.”

Joshi said Yeddyurappa had stated he would talk to party central leaders about the alliance and he was free do take the issue forward.

Protest rally

The state BJP will hold a "Vidhana Soudha chalo" programme in Bangalore on July 25 to protest against a panchayat raj amendment bill that provides for disqualification of gram panchayat (GP) members and gram panchayat presidents who fail to convene meetings of ward sabhas and gram sabhas.

Joshi said the provisions of the bill were undemocratic and infringed upon the rights of elected representatives.

The Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2013 recently passed in the Legislative Assembly introduces a clause making it mandatory on the part of GP members to convene a meeting of ward sabhas at least once in six months.  The penal clause in the Bill provides for disqualification or removal of the GP members and GP presidents if they fail to convene two successive meetings.

Joshi said many of the GP members were not socially forward for effective implementation of the provisions of the bill. Of the 90,000 GP members, nearly 15,000 were illiterates, he pointed out.

On July 25, a meeting will be held at Freedom Park and later a protest march would be taken to the Vidhana Soudha. Protests would also be held at all taluk and district headquarters. Joshi demanded that the government withdraw the bill.

A convention of small-time retail vendors would be held in Bangalore on July 30 to discuss the implications to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, Joshi said.