From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 23: Dharwad BJP MP Prahlad Joshi, who edged out two of coastal Karnataka’s hot contenders like former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Mangalore Lok Sabha member Nalin Kumar Kateel to don the mantle of State BJP president, assumed charge at the Karnataka BJP Office in Malleswaram on Saturday.
''I am aware of the challenges before the party,” Joshi said confessing that the State BJP’s image has suffered some damage due to ''some blunders” during the last five years.
He, however, exhuded confidence of leading the party back to power with a thumping majority and urged the partymen to work unitedly now that it has been ''cleansed” of all the stigma of the last few years.
Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, national general secretarty H N Ananth Kumar, outgoing president and deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa, former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda, deputy chief minister R Ashok and other senior BJP leaders participated in the function and promised to work for the success of the party under Joshi’s leadership.
“Some blunders committed in the last four or five years have dented the party’s image and hurt the party workers,” said Joshi, who succeeds Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarapa as the state BJP President.
Eshwarappa had resigned from the post earlier this month.
In an apparent dig at former chief minister and Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurappa, Eshwarapa said a section of party workers felt justice had not been done to them just to placate “someone or his autocratic nature.”
''We are now more determined and would fight the elections under a sober team and leadership, he said, asking the partymen to face the electoral battle unitedly.
Shettar said Joshi was leading the party at a crucial electoral battle and BJP would bounce back to power with absolute majority despite negative projections,
While Shettar admitted that the principal opposition Congress was BJP’s main rival in the State, he said “other parties, especially splinter groups, don’t count at all.”
The Congress lacked leadership, Ananth Kumar said and challenged it to name who would lead it in the elections.
People would also teach a lesson to those who walked out of BJP for “petty reasons,” he said in an indirect reference to Yeddyurappa.