Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Nov 30: Former president of Udupi zilla panchayat, B N Shankar Poojary, has been appointed president of the district BJP's Other Backward Classes (OBC) Morcha in place of Rajesh Kaveri with immediate affect. This change was made by district BJP president, Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, under instructions from state BJP OBC unit president, B J Puttaswamy.

Rajesh Kaveri from the town, who was till now the president of OBC unit of BJP, was suddenly dropped. There was expectation that he might face the heat, as he has been identified with anti-Halady Srinivas Shetty faction, independent MLA from here, and steadfastly opposed the proposed return of Halady into BJP fold, and raised banner of revolt against party leadership.

During the recent Navakarnataka Nirmana Parivarthana Yatre programme of BJP organized at Nehru Maidan here in which Halady participated, the faction opposed to the MLA had raised slogans against him. After Shobha Karandlaje declared that Halady Srinivas Shetty would be the next BJP candidate from the local assembly constituency, the anti-Shetty faction had gone wild and on the very next day, declared in a press conference that the party had not officially made any announcement about its candidate.

Perhaps angered by the fact that his opposition to Shetty was overlooked and the party had paved way for his return into the party, Kaveri, who felt that Yeddyurappa and Shobha Karandlaje were to blame for this development, had posted objectionable photographs of state BJP president, B S Yeddyurappa, and MP, Shobha Karandlaje in a WhatsApp group of which a few other BJP activists are members. A complaint had also been registered in Udupi police station in this regard.

It is said that a section of BJP is opposed to the removal of Kaveri as they feel that it would send wrong signal when election is round the corner. Although Kaveri has been a prominent BJP leader from the town since long, the party, it appears, wants to maintain discipline and do away with factionalism.

It may be recalled that Rajesh Kaveri, after being elevated to the position of the district OBC president, had released a list of office bearers of this unit. But there was opposition to this list, and some office bearers were replaced later by the party leadership.

District president of BJP, Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, has since clarified that Rajesh Kaveri has been rested now, and that he continues to be a part of BJP.