The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national leadership has kick-started preparations for the Assembly elections in Karnataka by appointing Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goel as in charge and co-in charge, respectively, for the elections.
These appointments were made by party national president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday. The Assembly elections are to be held some time in March or April 2018. The appointments come close on the heels of Mr. Shah’s three-day visit to the State to activate the party cadre.
Mr. Javadekar, who hails from Pune, is said to be familiar with Karnataka’s geography as he has toured the State earlier as part of RSS activities. Mr. Goel has been familiarising himself with the State politics of late through frequent visits. He had been chosen to attend the party programme of having breakfast in Dalits’ homes in Karnataka.
Reduced role?
Handing over the responsibility of the elections to the Union Ministers is being interpreted by a section of the BJP State unit as “reducing” the powers of the party’s national general secretary and State in charge Muralidhar Rao. His role has come under question by many for not being able to activate the party cadre. Sources ,however, said the fresh appointments were not aimed at targeting Mr. Rao. “It’s just the BJP organisation culture that Union Ministers be appointed election in-charge leaders for all the poll-bound States,” they said.
