Former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will be the BJP’s chief ministerial face in the Assembly polls scheduled early next year, party president Amit Shah said during an interaction with news wire Press Trust of India.
“It [Karnataka election] will be fought under Yeddyurappa,” Mr. Shah said, according to PTI.
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Asked if it meant that Mr. Yeddyurappa, who is the BJP’s Karnataka unit chief, will be the chief ministerial face, he said, “he will be.”
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Eshwarappa up in arms
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In an interview to The Hindu on Friday, Mr. Shah had also said that he was aware of the tussle within the Karnataka unit of the BJP and that the matter would be resolved before the elections in May 2018.
The Karnataka unit has been facing factionalism with a group headed by former deputy chief minister K.S. Eshwarappa targeting Mr. Yeddyurappa’s leadership.
Later, addressing a press conference marking three years of the Narendra Modi regime, Mr. Shah said the government had performed, especially in delivery of welfare measures and public services.
Asked whether “Achhe Din” or the promise of good days made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the election campaign of 2014 had been fulfilled, he said that despite the fact that satirists were wont to make fun of the phrase there were many people for whom happy days were here.
“For those 4.5 crore households that managed to construct a toilet, happy days are here. For the women in the two crore households who got cooking gas to replace firewood, a smokeless kitchen embodies good days,” he said.
He also said that the BJP supported the actions of Major Gogoi who had tied a Srinagar resident to the front of an Army jeep ostensibly to protect polling officers from stone pelters. “What he did to save polling officers in Srinagar is appreciated,” he said.