BSY's supporters catch leaders off guard at BJP meeting

Pandemonium prevailed for a while at the BJP meeting, organised to discuss party’s preparations in view of the Zilla and Taluk Panchayat elections, in Chamarajanagar, on Thursday.

All was well till former MLA A R Krishnamurthy and Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda addressed the party workers. When Mysuru-Kodagu Prathap Simha started addressing the party workers, a section of the audience started shouting, resulting in commotion.

After hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Simha started speaking about the pro-people programmes introduced during the tenure of Yeddyurappa as chief minister. 

It was at that time the former chief minister’s supporters started shouting and moved towards the dais. They demanded the leaders to announce Yeddyurappa as the party president and not to delay the issue further. The leaders were caught unawares.

Krishnamurthy, Sadananda Gowda and former minister V Somanna tried to pacify the supporters. They tried to explain that their outbursts would cause embarrassment to the party and convinced them that the party high command would take a favourable decision in this regard. Only after that, did the supporters calm down and the meeting continued.

Joins BJP

Former Zilla Panchayat president A S Nataraju left Congress and joined BJP in the presence of Sadananda Gowda. Nataraju was earlier in the BJP and had even served as the district unit president. Later, he joined Congress, contested and won the Zilla Panchayat elections.  But, he joined the BJP on Thursday.