Bhaskar Rao to join AAP; Basavaraj Horatti heads to BJP

Bhaskar Rao. Credit: DH Photo

In a boost to the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) unit in the state, retired IPS officer B Bhaskar Rao will join the party in Delhi on Monday.

The state JD(S) unit, meanwhile, suffered a blow as seven-time MLC and Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti announced that he will contest his next election on a BJP ticket.

Bhaskar Rao, whose resignation from service was accepted recently by the state government, will join AAP at its headquarters in the presence of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, party sources told DH. He had resigned from service in September 2021.

A native of Bengaluru, Rao belongs to the 1990 batch of the Indian Police Service. He served in a number of posts, including that of the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, commissioner of transport department, ADGP of internal security division and in the Karnataka State Reserve Police.

Horatti told reporters in Hubballi that he would be contesting the upcoming Legislative Council elections from Karnataka West Teachers’ Constituency on a BJP ticket.

Among the longest serving MLCs, Horatti said that he would join the ruling party prior to the elections. The poll for the teachers’ constituency is expected in June or July.

He said senior leaders of the BJP, including former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, have welcomed his decision to join BJP.

“I am leaving JD(S) due to certain compulsions. I have informed my decision to the senior leaders of the JD(S). Former chief minister
H D Kumaraswamy has also assured that the JD(S) will not field a candidate against me in the forthcoming Council elections,” he said.

On a letter by a section of state BJP leaders to national BJP president J P Nadda against ‘recruiting’ him as he was nearing 75 years of age, Horatti (72) said that he was not aware of any such letter.

The entire top brass of the state BJP has welcomed and supported his decision, he said, adding that “the BJP leaders will deal with any such letter.”

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