SHIVAMOGGA: Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday launched the poll campaign of his son, BY Vijayendra, in Shikaripura, his pocket borough.
This comes even as the BJP parliamentary board – of which Yediyurappa is also a member – is yet to meet to finalise the list of candidates for the May 10 assembly polls. The campaign launch comes two days after Yediyurappa asserted that his son will contest only from Shikaripura, and the same will be conveyed to the party’s central leadership.
Accompanied by both his sons – Vijayendra and Shivamogga MP BY Raghavendra – Yediyurappa started the campaign from Huccharaya temple of Lord Hanuman, which was renovated and developed by the ex-CM recently.
Yediyurappa then went on to hold a meeting with members and local leaders of the agitating Banjara community, who had last week thrown stones at his home in Shikaripura, protesting against the new reservation policy which has relegated them to having an internal quota of 4.5% along with three other Scheduled Tribe communities. This is being speculated as part of the groundwork to ensure Vijayendra does not face repercussions at the hustings as the community has a sizeable number in the segment.
The former chief minister said that said as Vijayendra was looking for a constituency, he decided to bring him to Shikaripura and convinced the BJP brass to field him.
Yediyurappa also exuded confidence that Vijayendra would win with a margin of 50,000 votes. He said that BJP’s list will be announced in two days. tnn