Leaders of the seniors’ forum of BJP on Saturday demanded the resignation of party president Nitin Gadkari, and advised central leaders not to waste their time in persuading former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to stay back in the party.
President of the former and former chief of the state unit of BJP, B B Shivappa, said Gadkari should step down and emerge clean of the charges levelled against him. They requested senior central leaders of the party to adopt the same action as against Yeddyurappa when the leader was indicted by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining.
Though the allegations against Gadkari were not proved, he should step down till he was cleared of all charges. “Due to scams and charges of corruption, the BJP will not return to power in Karnataka in next year’s elections. I can say that the BJP will emerge as a strong party. The BJP has lost its image because of an erosion of principles of the Sangh Parivar,” Shivappa added.
The forum has set a week’s deadline to the state to concentrate day-to-day administration rather than spend time and energy in requesting the former CM to remain in the party. If government did not heed, the forum would launch an agitation, forum general secretary Anna Vinayachandra said. The forum threatened to launch a campaign if the party decides to give tickets to tainted ministers and legislators.