Eshwarappa quits as Karnataka BJP chief

Shimoga: Ahead of coming assembly polls due in May, Karnataka BJP chief KS Eshwarappa on Thursday announced he has resigned from the post. “I have sent my resignation to the party president Rajnath Singh,” he told reporters in Shimoga, his home town, about 270 km north of Bangalore. He said he expected the party to decide on his successor in three or four days. [caption id=“attachment_652312” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Karnataka BJP chief KS Eshwarappa[/caption] The resignation came as a surprise though his three-year term as state party president ended in January as there was speculation that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might retain him in the post till the assembly elections are over. The party, ruling Karnataka for the first time, is in a bad shape due to corruption scandals and dissidence. Talk in BJP circles was that changing the party chief when assembly polls are near will only worsen the situation in the state unit as there were many aspirants for the chair. Eshwarappa took over as state party chief in Jan 2010 after resigning from the ministry headed then by BS Yeddyurappa. He joined the Jagadish Shettar cabinet as one of the deputy chief ministers in July last year. Eshwarappa will continue as deputy chief minister handling revenue portfolio. In December 2012, Lokayukta sleuths had seized Rs 10.9 lakh in cash, 1.9 kg of gold and 37 kg of silver during searches at the residences of Eshwarappa and educational and business establishments allegedly belonging to him. In all, searches were conducted at eight places, including his Bangalore and Shimoga residence, a cement dealership unit, two educational institutions and the house of his close aid N Somasekhar in Shimoga. A Shimoga court on December 15 ordered an investigation into a complaint filed by advocate B Vinod, who alleged that Eshwarappa, also state BJP chief who holds the Revenue and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj portfolios in the Jagadish Shettar government, his son Kanthesh KE and daughter-in-law Shalini had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. With inputs from IANS and PTI