Six Rebel BJP members resign Party Post for Selecting Halady as Candidate
Udupi: Upset over the announcement of the BJP ticket to Halady Srinivas Shetty after strong opposition by the party workers, six rebel members on Tuesday, April 10, resigned their party posts.
Along with the BJP Udupi district vice president Kishore Kumar, Sathish Hegde, Chandramohan Poojary, Ravindra Doddamani, Vittal Poojary and Srinivas Marakala tendered their resignation to the district BJP president Mattar Rathnakar Hegde at his residence.
Later speaking to media persons Kishore Kumar said, “Today six of us, district level party office bearers from Kundapur decided to resign to our posts. We will call an Assembly-level party office bearers meeting soon and decide on taking further steps. We did not quit the party, we are still in the party and have resigned only to our posts”.
Kishore Further said, “A man who had worked against the party’s interest and tried to break it in the last five years has been given the ticket to contest the elections. In the last 5 years, we have strengthened the BJP in Kundapur. The Party High command has announced the candidate without taking in to account the party workers opinion. We will not campaign for BJP candidate Halady Srinivas Shetty but will remain neutral in Kundapur. Since we are still members of the BJP we will work for our candidates in Udupi, Karkala, Byndoor and Kaup remaining neutral only in the Kundapur assembly constituency”.
Kishore also said, “I was interested to contest from Kundapur Assembly constituency. In last assembly elections, the party forced me to contest against Halady and I did not object to the party orders. But this time the party leaders failed to listen to our opinion”, he said.
District president Mattar Rathnakar Hegde said, “The party high command had announced the list of candidates for the assembly elections day before yesterday. In the first list, the high command finalised Halady Srinivas Shetty as the candidate for Kundapur Assembly constituency. Since the last assembly elections, there was some confusion in the Kundapur constituency which is common in every party. We have announced Srinivas Shetty as the official candidate and he will win the elections”.
Mattar Rathnakar further said, “Today six office bearers resigned to their post, I will not accept their resignation immediately. They have resigned only to their post and not the party. I hope they will work for the party’s official candidate in the coming days. I will call a meeting in Kunadapur to clear the confusions between the leaders and party workers”.
