Kateel should resign as BJP State President for Assembly election defeat: Renukacharya
_vb_94.jpeg)
Bengaluru: BJP leader and former MLA M P Renukacharya on Thursday said the party's state President Nalin Kumar Kateel should have resigned from the post, taking moral responsibility for the Assembly poll debacle.
Targeting party leaders without taking any names, the former minister alleged that the BJP office has been turned into a "corporate office", and urged them to introspect and work towards strengthening the party and boosting the morale of the workers for the Lok Sabha elections and the zilla and taluk panchayat polls, among others.
"After the election debacle, the state president should have taken moral responsibility and resigned. He should have taken the moral responsibility. Some days ago there was news that he had resigned, and within an hour after that statement came denying it. What is happening," Renukacharya asked.
Speaking to reporters here, he said people still have respect towards the BJP, but the party leaders should set-right things within.
"BJP should come to power once again in the state and at the Centre, Narendra Modi should become Prime Minister once again. Morale of the party workers should be restored to face zilla panchayat , taluk panchayat and other polls. So introspect. I don't know whether there is a soul in some people to introspect," he lamented, alleging that some have turned the BJP office into a "corporate office".
Further alleging that party workers are being threatened, he asked some leaders -- without taking any names -- to shed their dictatorial attitude. Renukacharya said, "Just about four days ahead of elections, leaders held online meetings, virtual rallies. Looking at their faces daily, workers were tired."
When reporters pressed him to take names, he said he will come out with names when the situation arises. "I'm not speaking about Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or J P Nadda, but here some leaders had rigid self esteem, a sense of competition among themselves," the former MLA said.
"Leaders who had no practical knowledge, who had not won even a gram panchayat election were guiding us," he pointed out, adding, "Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who was the poll co-incharge for the party in Karnataka, came here and was giving guidance to us".
"Is Annamalai a big hero? He had come here and was striking a pose... Former CMs Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai had to listen to someone who used to salute them (Annamalai had served as IPS officer in Karnataka in the past)," Renukacharya charged.
Targeting the state BJP leaders, he said, "When Congress was announcing poll guarantees much before the elections, our leaders were sleeping, and the party manifesto which came very late, did not even reach the people."
Candidates to some seats were announced at the last moment, he added, "which also led to the loss". State President Kateel and other leaders travelled across the state but failed to convert public response into votes, he complained.
Questioning why Yediyurappa was made to step down as chief minister, Renukacharya said his removal from the CM post contributed to the party's defeat in the Assembly election.
"With Modi and Yediyurappa as the face, you wanted to win the election, but what was your contribution towards winning the polls?" he asked party leaders, without naming anyone, despite reporters repeatedly asking whether he was targeting BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh.
He also pointed out that denial of tickets to some senior leaders led to the situation, and questioned, "Were they denied tickets to make way for your (leaders) chelas (followers)?"
Ruling out the possibility of him joining the Congress, Renukacharya said his recent meeting with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was just a courtesy call.
"My intention is to see Modi as Prime Minister once again... I'm an aspirant for MP ticket, have conveyed it to the party. Let's see what happens," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
MP: Woman, lover conspire to get husband killed; police looking for contract killer
Dhar (MP) (PTI): A 25-year-old woman and her lover have been arrested in the district for allegedly conspiring to kill her husband by hiring a contract killer, police said on Thursday.
The case was solved within 36 hours of the murder though the woman initially tried to mislead the police by claiming that robbers killed her husband, an official said.
Dev Krishna Purohit (28) was stabbed to death on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday at his house in Gondikheda Charan village, about 60 km from here.
Superintendent of Police Mayank Awasthi told reporters that accused Priyanka Purohit (25) was married to Dev Krishna when she was around 15 years old. Priyanka moved to her matrimonial home after attaining adulthood but was unwilling to live with her husband, leading to frequent disputes between them.
During investigation, it emerged that she was in a relationship with Kamlesh (32), the SP said.
The duo allegedly hatched a plan to kill Dev Krishna and hired a man identified as Surendra for Rs 1 lakh do the job, he said
After Dev Krishna was killed, Priyanka told police that unidentified persons broke into the house, attacked her husband with a sharp weapon while holding her captive in another room, and fled with valuables.
But the inconsistencies in her statements raised suspicion, and eventually she confessed to hatching the murder conspiracy, the SP said.
While she and Kamlesh were arrested, police are looking for the contract killer, the official added.
