Karnataka elections: Decision to deny ticket to BS Yeddyurappa son was needed to send message to society, says Sadananda Gowda

According to Gowda, “winnability” was not the only parameter that was considered before nominations in Karnataka. The decision to deny Vijayendra a ticket triggered protests in the local Varuna BJP unit, whose members turned violent after Yeddyurappa announced that his son would not contest. Vijayendra was eventually appointed the Yuva Morcha general secretary.

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“You saw what happened in Varuna after he was not given the ticket. Although he was the winning candidate, the party has decided that winnability is not the only parameter. A message had to be sent to society,” he said.

Since the protests in Varuna, the BJP has insisted that Vijayendra was denied a ticket to prove its stand against promoting “dynasty politics”.

Through the election campaign in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on similar issues.

Gowda also said the BJP had changed its processes after poll defeats in Delhi and Bihar in 2015. “After that (2015) debacle, there was in-depth exercise to understand what went wrong. The party decided that in nominating candidates, several parameters had to be considered. We have applied that in Karnataka,” he said.

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Referring to Reddy, Gowda said he was only touring the state in an individual capacity and as a friend of BJP candidate B Sriramulu. “Our party has said we do not have any relationship with him. In a democratic country, any individual can support anybody. That is his right. He is doing all this as a friend of Sriramulu, so we cannot restrain him. But we will not share the dais with him till he comes out from the courts as clean,” he said.

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According to the former chief minister, Modi’s rallies in Karnataka in the last stretch of campaigning would see the BJP home. “We have seen many elections, he (Modi) is the vote catcher. In our estimates, after Modiji’s rallies there is a 2-4 per cent shift in votes. That amounts to about 25 seats in Karnataka, which is the deciding factor,” he said.