In a development which is being seen as rumblings within the BJP in Dharwad district, Nanda Nishith, daughter of the former MLA S.I. Chikkanagoudar, has taken the Facebook route to take on Member of Parliament from Dharwad Pralhad Joshi.
Through her Facebook post, Ms. Nishith, who is married to the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s grandson, has sought answers from Mr. Joshi on why he was promoting leaders who had cheated the BJP and had canvassed against party candidate and her father S.I. Chikkanagoudar during the Assembly elections.
Posting photographs of those leaders who had campaigned for the Congress candidate, including Maheshgouda Patil, who was seen next to Mr. Joshi in a programme attended by the MP, Ms. Nishith has sought to know why they had not been dismissed from the party till date.
She has also in her post said that she has seen the MP from childhood and has respect for him. “However, it seems you yielded to a pressure from a vested interest group leading to the defeat of the BJP candidate in the Kundgol Assembly constituency. Power is not permanent. You also need to think of what will happen if the same thing is done to you. We request you to take action immediately,” she has said in the post. The post, which has gone viral, has also received similar responses from her Facebook friends many of whom have affiliation to the BJP. The development has subsequently led to the creation of a Facebook account: “Joshi Badalisi, BJP Gellisi” (Change Joshi, Ensure BJP victory).
As the post went viral, president of the Dharwad District Rural unit Iranna Jadi issued a press release condemning the post and suggesting that Ms. Nishith have an introspection on her father’s defeat rather than blaming the MP.
On Friday, Ms. Nishith again took to Facebook to react to Mr. Jadi’s statement asking him not to distort her statement and sought to know whether a common worker of the party had no right to question the party’s district leader. Clarifying that she has respect for the MP, Ms. Nishith has hoped that action would be taken soon in the matter. Later in the day, she shared some of the videos of BJP flags and posters being dumped in a forest area by some of the party workers who had changed sides, indicating the likelihood of the scuffle on Facebook continuing.
