Bengaluru: The aggressive working style of All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Karnataka K.C. Venugopal ahead of the Assembly polls, has left the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party jittery, reportedly forcing party President Amit Shah to instruct Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to work from Bengaluru for 5 days in a week. Mr Javadekar was recently appointed election in-charge of the state BJP with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal nominated as his deputy.
Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party confirmed to this newspaper that the party is worried over the work being done by Mr Venugopal and his team with regard to election preparations. Soon after his recent three-day visit to Bengaluru Mr Shah observed that his party is far behind the ruling party when it comes to election work and had pulled up state leaders. Realising how important a win in Karnataka is to the BJP’s plans to make inroads in the South, Mr Shah himself has taken control of state BJP affairs.
Mr Javadekar has visited Bengaluru twice and has held three or four rounds of meetings with state leaders and office bearers. But the central leadership is not satisfied with this, said sources adding that Mr Shah is obtaining daily inputs from Bengaluru and had observed that the BJP has a lot of catching up to do.
After Mr Shah’s instructions, Mr Javadekar has decided to stay in Bengaluru and is searching for a house near the party office in Malleswaram.
At present, the HRD Minister is operating from the guest house of Institute of Wood Science and Technology, situated at 18th cross in Malleshwaram, owned by the Union Ministry of Environment, a portfolio Mr Javadekar handles as an additional charge.
On Friday (September 15), Mr Javadekar and Mr Goyal reached Bengaluru and checked in at the guesthouse of the Institute of Wood Science and Technology.
Mr Javadekar commenced his work from the guesthouse. On Saturday, held a meeting with top BJP leaders.
Mr Javadekar has also entrusted responsibilities to party core committee leaders. Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, party national joint secretary Santhosh and other leaders had one to one meetings with Mr Javadekar and explained the work they have taken up after the Party President’s visit to Bengaluru.
