Former Chief Secretary of Karnataka K. Ratna Prabha, the third woman to have held the post after Teresa Bhattacharya (2000) and Malathi Das (2006), joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a public rally here on Wednesday. BJP State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa welcomed her to the party at Supermarket area in the middle of the procession organised for filing BJP candidate Umesh Jadhav’s nomination for Kalaburagi Lok Sabha segment. BJP leaders Malikayya Guttedar, Baburao Chinchanasur, Doddappagouda Patil Naribol, B.G. Patil, N. Ravikumar, Dattatreya Patil Revoor, Basavaraj Mattimud, Ambaraya Ashtagi and other party leaders were present.
Speaking to the media earlier in the day, the former bureaucrat said that she had joined BJP as per the aspirations of the people to serve them.
“I had decided to serve the people after my retirement and politics is a good way for it. I am happy to join the party in the Hyderabad Karnataka region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing good work. He is working round the clock for people. The successful Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has benefited the women,” she said. To a question, Ms. Prabha said that she had not demanded any position in the party.
The 1981 batch IAS officer had retired from the service in March 2018. She had served as Regional Commissioner (Gulbarga Division) between 2011 and 2012. She was known for launching the literacy campaign in a big way as a pilot project in Raichur when she was Deputy Commissioner there in 1991. Earlier, she had served as Assistant Commissioner in Bidar. She hails from a Dalit family in Andhra Pradesh.
