BJP to contest Karnataka elections 2018 under BS Yeddyurappa's leadership

BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest the Karnataka assembly elections 2018 under the leadership of BS Yeddyurappa, Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced on Sunday.

Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah had advocated for the Lingayat community strongman, saying that the party will contest the next state election under the leadership of Yeddyurappa.

BJP state president and former chief minister Yeddyurappa has been facing criticism over his "arbitrary" style of functioning with some party leaders expressing their unhappiness with him.

Building BJP in Karnataka, Yeddyurappa had crafted his political ascent that brought him the Chief Minister`s post which he lost in July 2011 after the party directed him to resign after the Lokayukta report indicted him on corruption charge linked to illegal mining.

Despite his four-decade-old association had ended when he walked out to float Karnataka Janata Paksha in 2012. However, he returned to the BJP fold in 2014.

Known for game of brinkmanship, highly temperamental Yeddyurappa has sobered down after the 2013 Assembly polls that established his capabilities as a spoiler but not as a powerful political entity. He returned to BJP conceding a lot.

Amit Shah on November 2 had flagged off the party's statewide 75-day rally in poll-bound Karnataka at a huge gathering of its leaders and cadres.

The BJP came to power on its own for the first time in 2008 but lost to the Congress in the May 2013 assembly election.