Karnataka polls: Not going to contest Assembly elections, says BS Yeddyurappa's son BY Raghavendra

Resting all speculation of his candidature at the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls, BY Raghavendra on Thursday said that he will limit his role only as a ‘karyakartha’ of the party. “This election I am not going to contest at all. The party has entrusted me a responsibility as the co-convener of the district election committee in Shivamogga. I will stick to that,” Raghavendra said in an interview for Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_4429045” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BY Raghavendra. Image from BY Raghavendra’s Twitter handle[/caption] Raghavendra, who won Shikaripura bye-election in 2014 (vacated by his father BS Yeddyurappa - who entered as the MP from the region), was heavily speculated by the media reports as plausible candidature from Ranebennur or Varuna constituency. However refuting such eventualities, Raghavendra said that he is willingly giving up his Shikaripura seat. “No one bothered to verify the facts with me, everyone spoke but no one clarified with me. If they did I would have clearly told them that I am not a ticket aspirant in 2018, but will only focus on the victory of the party and its chief ministerial candidate,” he said. According to the 45-year-old son of BJP Karnataka president and chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa, Shikaripura (Shivamogga) constituency has been close to the heart of his father. “Being a former MLA of the region, he has connected to the people at the grass root level. Therefore, all the senior leaders and the party cadres in the local unit will put our heads together to secure a landslide victory at the polls for him,” he said. While former Karnataka chief minister Sarekoppa Bangarappa has secured over 45,000 votes during his tenure at Sorab (Shivamogga) constituency, Raghavendra said that the party is confident of securing over 1 lakh votes to Yeddyurappa. “Ours is a cadre-based party. Be it missed-call campaign, booth-samithi, navashakti samavesha, parivartana yatre. Being a cadre-based party, for over a year, we have left no stone unturned to connect with our booth-level workers. Our hard work is paying off and we are confident of securing a historic margin in the constituency, as well as across the state,” he said. Besides projecting the developmental accomplishments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government, BJP’s Shivamogga district co-convener of election committee said that the election campaign will also highlight the milestones achieved by Yeddyurappa during his tenure as the Karnataka chief minister. “We will also showcase the shortcoming of the present Congress-led state government in resolving farmer issues and drought crisis in the state. Though even we had waived-off agriculturists’ loan during BJP tenure, the Congress has been unable to provide a sustainable future to our farmers,” he said. While adding that he will not accompany his father Yeddyurappa on the campaign trail across the state, Raghavendra said he will coordinate the visits of BJP national president Amit Shah and Modi in the state. “While the BJP national president had recently visited our constituency, we may get maximum up to 10 days from the prime minister will campaign in the state after 29 April,” he said. BJP plans to cover at least 50 campaign points during the run-up to the polls attended by national and state leaders. Downplaying the recent party workers dissent over the first list of candidates released by the BJP, the Shivamogga district co-convener of election committee downplayed it as inevitable. “See, we must see the episode in a positive light, our party is growing, of course there will be more number of aspirants. However, we are confident that both state and national high command will reach out to everyone and take everyone into confidence before the election is to commence,” Raghavendra said. The author is part of www.storyinfinity.com, a collective of independent journalists.