From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jul 7: In the battle for supremacy in Karnataka’s BJP to prepare for the run-up to the 2018 State Assembly poll battle, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s attempts to pack the all-important Core Committee with his trusted followers, including Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje, suffered a huge setback with BJP National President Amit Shah axing the name and pruning the list to barely a dozen.

Significantly, the Mangaluru Lok Sabha member Nalin Kumar Kateel is a member of the Core Committee.

The Lingayat strongman, who had been crowned the State BJP President in the place of Dharwad MP Prahald Joshi upon completion of the term, had constituted the State party office-bearers by including his own supporters in key posts and naming Karandlaje as the General Secretary that led a huge controversy with several BJP leaders, especially former Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa, raising serious objections.

Yeddyurappa, however, went ahead with the constitution of a Core Committee by including his staunch supporters and ignoring the claims of many others and had threatened to take disciplinary action for those raising the banner of revolt.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had anointed Yeddyurappa to head the State party unit in a bid to capture power in the next round of assembly elections, they were apparently keen to prevent any dissidence and ensure that the party was united to prevent the kind of dubbing it received in the last assembly elections in 2013.’

The 12-member core committee approved by the National President, as per the communication from National BJP General Secretary Arun Singh, has just one person C M Udasi, who can be regarded as a close follower of Yeddyurappa. But most significantly, the list is conspicuous by the absence of Shobha Karandlaje’s name.

The list has two Union Ministers from the State – H N Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda, the opposition leaders in both houses of State legislature Jagadish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa besides former deputy chief minister R Ashok and immediate past president Prahlad Joshi.

The communication from the BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh to Yeddyurappa mandates that the Core Committee shall meet once a month and if necessary more number times. The National General Secretary (Organisation), National Joint Secretaries (Org), State party in-charge and State General Secretary (Org) will be the other permanent invitees to the Core Committee.

The 12-member core committee comprises the following:

1. B S Yeddyurappa
2. H N Ananth Kumar
3. D V Sadananda Gowda
4. Jagadish Shettar
5. K S Eshwarappa
6. R Ashok
7. Prahlad Joshi
8. Nalin Kumar Kateel
9. C T Ravi
10. Arvind Limbavali
11. C M Udasi
12. Govind Karjol