Aspirants to the post of district president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have resumed their lobbying as observers from the State party unit arrived in Yadgir to collect opinion to finalise the name.
According to information made available by the BJP district unit, five observers will collect opinion from local leaders and workers and also discuss with aspirants and submit a report to the State party office where a core committee will discuss the issue and finalise the name, appointing him as the new district president.
“The observers could have conducted the meeting on Tuesday itself. But the scheduled meeting has been postponed to Thursday due to the demise of a prominent BJP worker Neelakantharay Yelheri,” outgoing district president Sharanabhupal Reddy said.
He said that “Jagadish Hiremani and Basavaraj Yankanchi from the State, Rajkumar Patil Telkur, Amarnath Patil, Eshwar Singh Thakur, Arun Billad and Suryakanth Doni from the division are the observers. MPs, the former MP, the former MLAs and MLCs, district president and general secretary and all members of the district core committee will discuss the issue and send the details to the State party office.”
Aspirants
There are many aspirants who have already met State president B.Y. Vijayendra individually and are lobbying for the post.
Siddappa Hotti, Khandappa Dasan, Devendra Nath Nad, Venkatareddy Abbetumakur, Suresh Ambiger, Bheemaraya Jangali and Naganagouda Hayyal from Yadgir Assembly constituency, Sharanagouda Badiyal and Mallanagouda Hattikuni from Gurmitkal Assembly constituency, Ameenreddy Patil Yalagi, Rajugouda Ukkinal, Yallayya Nayak, Rajshekhar Googal, Basavaraj Vibhutihalli and Guru Kama from Shahapur Assembly constituency and H.C. Patil from Shorapur Assembly constituency are the aspirants.
Key role
The former MLAs Narasimha Nayak (Shorapur), Venkatareddy Mudnal and Veerabasanth Reddy Mudnal (Yadgir) will play a key role in finalizing the name for the post.
“Opinion from these leaders will make a huge impact in finalizing the new district president. But they have not aired their opinion in public yet,” a party leader said.
Gurmitkal
Leaders from Shorapur, Shahapur and Yadgir Assembly constituencies have served the party occupying the top post in the district unit, he added.
Chandrashakhar Maganur from Shorapur, Veerangouda Mallabadi from Shahapur and Veerabasanth Reddy Mudnal and Sharanabhupal Reddy Naikal from Yadgir have been in the post so far. But there has been no opportunity given yet for Gurmitkal Assembly constituency after Yadgir was formed as a new district, he said.
Tough task
Meanwhile, appointing the new district president for Yadgir has become a tough task as the aspirants are lobbying for the post on caste basis.
Leaders from the forward Lingayat-Reddy community have been appointed district president so far. Therefore, backward classes and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes leaders are trying to get the post based on the concept of caste and social justice, he said.
“We have to strengthen the party from the grassroots as it lost Yadgir and Shorapur in the last Assembly elections and at present, there is no representation by the party in the Assembly from the district as out of the four constituencies, the Congress has won three and the remaining one has gone to the Janata Dal(S) which is now aligned with the BJP,” he said.
“Under such circumstances, the new district president has to work hard to rebuild the party from the ground for the next Parliament elections,” the party leader, who did not want to be named, said.
