BANGALORE: The BJP on Tuesday chose former chief minister Jagadish Shettar as the leader of its legislature party and former deputy chief minister R Ashok as his deputy leader.
The party also elected former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda as the leader of opposition in the legislative council. KB Shanappa will be his deputy.
The legislature party meeting was held under the leadership of former BJP president Nitin Gadkari. None of the national leaders who used to be present in Bangalore even for minor developments were seen in the meeting as the party has been pushed to third spot in the recently concluded assembly polls even losing the opposition party status. Both BJP and JD(S) are tied with 40 seats in the 224 assembly strength and latter will get opposition party status by the virtue of garnering more vote share than the former.
The legislature party meeting ended early after introspection on the defeat. Most of the leaders maintained that internal squabbling among leaders cost them the election despite the given pro-people policies and government.
Commenting on the party’s defeat, Gadkari said winning and losing are part of electioneering and volunteers should not get de-motivated. “We did not run away from the battle. The party is preparing for the election from this day. We are expecting early election for Lok Sabha and the party is confident that BJP will come to power in the forthcoming election,” he said.
