Bengaluru (Karnataka): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to recover from the shock defeat in the recent Karnataka Assembly elections. As a result, there has been a delay in appointing the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly and the state Legislative Council and the Karnataka BJP President.
The Karnataka Assembly elections were announced on May 13 and the Congress formed the government in the state after obtaining a full majority in the 224-member House. Congress leader Siddaramaiah was sworn in as the Chief Minister, while DK Shivakumar was as Deputy Chief Minister, along with 8 Ministers. The oath-taking of MLAs has also been completed.
But the BJP national leaders are so upset with the election results that they are not even paying attention to the appointment of opposition leaders in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. It was said that the party would have appointed the opposition leaders once the Congress selected its Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, but despite their swearing-in, the appointments have not been made.
According to sources in the know-how, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has requested the BJP high command to select the leader of the opposition in the Assembly. It is said that Bommai requested his party's central leadership team twice or thrice to select the Leader of the Opposition. But it is learnt that the party's high command has not taken the issue seriously as currently, the Assembly session is not in progress.
The party is also demanding a change in the state BJP president. Nalin Kumar Kateel, who is the state BJP president, has completed his tenure and it is said that there is a thought to appoint a Lingayat or Okkaliga community leader as the state BJP president in his place.
The state BJP leaders and the party's high command, who were indomitably confident of a resounding victory are disillusioned with the result. There was an extensive campaign undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda in the southern state, but despite that the results did not favour the party.
