Bengaluru: Miffed BJP neta Ramesh quits post, blames Ananth Kumar for nixing ticket

Bengaluru: Miffed BJP leader N.R. Ramesh who resigned as party city spokesperson, alleged that the Chickpet ticket was offered to Mr Uday Garudachar and not him at the behest of Union minister Ananth Kumar.

"Mr Ananth Kumar does not wish to have genuine party workers like me in the BJP. He should not forget that it was from Chickpet that he got the majority of votes and won" Mr Ramesh said and added that former DCM R Ashok had chosen to remain a mute spectator to the developments. He lamented that he had expected more from the party for which he worked hard day and night and exposed multi-crore scams involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Bengaluru development minister K.J. George and other bigwigs in the Congress.

Mr Ramesh also said he had been advised not to take any hasty decision. “Karnataka BJP in-charge Muralidhar Rao, BJP election in-charge Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goel and BJP state president B. S. Yeddyurappa are planning to hold a meeting and I am confident that I will get justice,” said Mr Ramesh.

Senior BJP leaders have reportedly offered him the ticket to contest from either Gandhinagar or Chamarajpet assembly constituency. However, he has not accepted their offer. Ramesh said that he has worked in Chickpet constituency for the last three years and creating goodwill in any other constituency with just a month left for the polls was not easy.

Party leaders are expected to take a decision on Tuesday while Mr Ramesh is planning to meet party workers and well wishers on Wednesday to decide on his future course of action.