Nearly a year after he was appointed president of the State unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nalin Kumar Kateel on Friday revamped the entire party organisation and announced a new set of office-bearers.
Several of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s loyalists have lost prominence in the new set-up. Significantly, his son B.Y. Vijayendra, who was secretary of the party’s youth wing and a prominent aspirant to become a general secretary of the State unit, has been pushed to become a vice-president — a post largely considered ceremonial in the organisation, otherwise led by general secretaries.
“The new faces are mostly from the RSS stable and are considered close to B.L. Santhosh, the national general secretary (organisation) of the BJP,” a senior leader said, adding that a new team was imperative under a new party chief and this revamp had long been in the offing and was, in fact, delayed.
Mr. Yediyurappa’s close aides Shobha Karandlaje and Arvind Limbavali, who were powerful general secretaries, have also been appointed vice-presidents. MP for Mysuru Pratap Simha has been replaced as president of the youth wing by Sandeep from Bengaluru. Mr. Simha has been rehabilitated as a vice-president.
While N. Ravikumar and Mahesh Tenginakayi have been retained as general secretaries, former MLCs Ashwath Narayan from the city and Siddaraju from Mysuru are the new appointees, replacing Ms. Karandlaje and Mr. Limbavali.
Eeranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti, recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha against the recommendations of the State core committee led by Mr. Yediyurappa, have been drafted into the organisation as presidents of the Farmers’ Morcha and the OBC Morcha, respectively. Capt. Ganesh Karnik has been appointed as State party spokesman.
