With defections galore, BJP sets in place plan to defeat rebels

With ten leaders of the party defecting, BJP's chief election strategist Amit Shah held a meeting on Tuesday to lay out the plans ahead of the May 10 polls.

In order to defeat the defectors, the BJP has come out with a strategy to defeat them. The meeting which was chaired by Shah laid special emphasis on the Hubbai-Dharward Central constituency from where Jagadish Shettar is contesting. Shettar who was denied a ticket by the BJP and joined the Congress and will be fighting on that party's ticket against the BJP.

The other seat that was discussed by the party as Ahtani, where Laxman Savadi, a former chief minister of the BJP is contesting. He too had quit the party after being denied a ticket.

Shah during his visit to Hubbali and met with functionaries involved in the campaign in the northern parts of the state. Winning big in the North is important for the BJP as it has the maximum number of Lingayat votes. The community constitutes 17 per cent of the state's population. The party will also be organising several roadshows by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this region.

In addition to this senior leaders B S Yediyurappa and Prahlad Joshi have been asked to give special emphasis to this region

Yediyurappa while commenting on Shettar had called him a betrayer. He enjoyed all privileges in the BJP and has now joined the Congress.

The others who have defected to the Congress include H D Thammaih who will be contesting against BJP strongman, C T Ravi. U B Banakar who was once a staunch loyalist of Yediyurappa is now fighting against B C Patil of the BJP in Hirer. K S Kiran Kumar also moved to the Congress from the BJP. Ayanur Manjunath is another leader who moved to the JD(S). The other leader who moved to the JD(S) from the BJP is A Manju. N R Santosh who is related to Yediyurappa also shifted to the JD(S) just before the elections.