Bengaluru: The BJP has formed three teams, led by senior leaders to travel across Karnataka, to prepare the ground for the state assembly elections next year, party strongman and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa said. Making an appeal to end the flare-up of communal issues in the state, he said Hindus and Muslims should lead their lives as "children of one mother."
"From April 12 to 24, in three teams, we will be travelling across the state. BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel will be in the first team, our national general secretary (Arun Singh) and I will be together in the second team and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will be in the third team," Yediyurappa said.
Talking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said this tour is aimed at strengthening the party, holding discussions with party workers for drawing up strategies and preparing for the polls. "Such tours will continue here...in the first phase we will be travelling in three teams," he added.
BJP sources in Delhi said every team will have seven to eight members. Besides Yediyurappa, national general secretary CT Ravi, former chief ministers Sadanand Gowda and Jagdish Shettar, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, and state ministers Eshwarappa and R Ashok, among others, will be part of the teams, they said. BJP president JP Nadda will also be spending a couple of days in the state.
The team members will be spending at least two days in different areas so as to ensure that the feedback exercise is comprehensive, the sources said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his visit to the state earlier this month, had set a target of 150 seats (in the 225-member assembly) for Karnataka BJP leaders for the 2023 elections.
