Bengaluru: Laying all speculation to rest, former Revenue Minister V. Srinivas Prasad announced on Saturday that he would formally join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the second week of January and contest the Nanjangud bypoll as its candidate.
“I have decided to join the saffron party along with my followers at the fag end of my four decade old political career in the second week of January. I will be the BJP’s candidate for the Nanjangud bypoll,” he told reporters here after a meeting with state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa earlier in the day.
The Bharatiya Janata Party chief had arrived at Mr Prasad’s house in the morning accompanied by former minister, S A Ramdas and former MLC,, Mallikarjunaiah, to finalise his joining the party.
A mega rally will be held in either Mysuru or Nanjangud to welcome the Dalit leader into the party fold. Recalling that he had been a Cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government at the Centre and enjoyed good relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders such as L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, Mr Prasad said that he was not expecting any post in the party.
“All I want is to be treated with respect as I am at the fag end of my career in active politics,” he added. Training his guns on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, he accused him of treating him badly and dropping him from the state Cabinet without reason.
“I was unceremoniously removed from the council of ministers and this hurt me a lot. I once again apologise to the people of Nanjangud for imposing a bypoll on them due to my resignation. The contest is necessary to salvage my pride,” he explained. Mr Yeddyurappa told reporters that his party was proud to have a tall leader like Mr Prasad join it.
Accusing Mr Siddramaiah of protecting former managing director of KNNL, T N Chikkarayappa, he warned he would get into trouble if the officer was arrested either by the Central Bureau of Investigation or Enforcement Directorate. Claiming he had documents to “expose the corrupt activities of Congress ministers in the state,” he said he would release them “at the right time.”
