Bengaluru: In a bid to calm down Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, wife of late Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who was denied BJP ticket from Bengaluru South, the party on Tuesday officially elevated her to state Vice President post.
There are 11 other existing vice presidents for Karnataka BJP, and the elevation seems to be an eyewash by the party. Tejaswini was defacto candidate from Bengaluru south where her husband Ananthkumar won since 1996.
The BJP high command had allotted ticket to 28-year-old Tejasvi Surya, with just hours left for the deadline of filing nominations for first phase of Karnataka elections. Even the BJP state leaders were shocked to know the decision of the party to field young Surya.
Tejaswini was also unhappy with the party's decision. At one instance, she had openly asked who is Tejasvi Surya and pretended that she don’t know him.
She, though had insisted that she remained loyal to party and accepted their decision to ensure that Narendra Modi became Prime Minister again, was not involving herself in any campaign related activities.
The displeasure among BJP leaders against Surya's candidacy was also evident. Former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka and V Sommana had visited Tejaswini. But they didn’t’ attend the nomination filing of Surya.
BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa also expressed shock after Tejaswini was denied ticket.
“Even we are shocked. We have sent only one reference to high-command for Bengaluru South constituency and that was Tejaswini Ananthkumar,” he said.
But, Yeddyurappa took it to Twitter to congratulate Tejaswini for being appointed as vice president.
Most of the party leaders were upset with the decision to field Surya as the candidate.
Speaking to News18, a follower of Tejaswini Ananthkumar and BJP worker said, “Tejaswini should have given ticket from Bengaluru South. But high-command did not consider her selfless act of working towards bettering the society. Now they have made her Vice President for namesake. It can’t console our grief.”
Presently BJP has 11 vice presidents and the party has the practice of appointing deprived leaders as vice-president.
Earlier when BS Yeddyurappa rejoined the party after 2013 elections, he was made the national vice-president. There were over a dozen of vice-presidents across the country by then.
Uma Bharathi who expressed her unwillingness to contest Lok Sabha elections this time was also made the national vice-president. In July 2012, Sadananda Gowda had to step down as Karnataka Chief Minister in July 2012. He was also made national vice-president of the party.
Presently, B Sriramulu, Govinda Karajol, Ananth Kumar Hegde, PC Mohan, V Somanna, B Somashekhar, Baburao Chavan, Dr M Nagaraj, Nagarathna Kuppi, Shrinivas Prasad, KP Nanjundi and Tejaswini Ananthkumar are the Vice Presidents of Karnataka BJP.
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