Karnataka Polls: Resignation spree continues in BJP as miffed Ayanur Manjunath quits party

As Karnataka gears up for assembly elections, BJP continues to witness a resignation spree as miffed leaders have been quitting over being excluded from the party’s candidate list in connection with ticket distribution.

After Laxman Savadi and Jagadish Shettar, a new name have been added to the list as Ayanur Manjunath is all set to quit the party. He will resign as MLC and from the primary membership of the BJP party. He will be submitting his resignation to the speaker of the council Basavaraj Horatti today. 

Karnataka BJP continues to witness resignation spree ahead of polls

Ayanur Manjunath was a BJP aspirant for the Shivamogga, however, the saffron party has not announced its candidate yet. Manjunath has announced his resignation as there is no guarantee of getting a ticket. Due to this, even before the elections, the BJP in Shivamogga suffered a setback. Ayanur Manjunath has stated that he will be fighting polls from the same consistency. As per the sources, Manjunath will be joining the Janata Dal (Secular) party today after submitting his resgination and will contest the upcoming polls from Shivamogga constituency on the JDS ticket 

Apart from the Ayanur Manjunath, the Former Karnataka Chief Minister Shettar Jagadish Shettar resigned from BJP the state assembly after being denied a ticket to contest the upcoming assembly election from his Hubballi-Dharwad central constituency. He went on to join Congress.

Ex-deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi was hoping to contest from the Athani constituency ticket but was denied a ticket. He resigned as the Legislative Council member of the BJP and also quit and jumped ship to Congress.

S Angara, a six-time MLA from Sullia constituency in Dakshina Kannada district has announced his retirement from politics, a day after he was denied a ticket by BJP.

R Shankar, a BJP MLC resigned from the legislative council a day after BJP didn’t give him a ticket to contest.  Shankar was aspiring to contest the election from Ranebennur but was replaced by Arun Kumar Pujar. He was one of the 17 opposition MLAs who helped the BJP bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in 2019. 

Mudigere BJP MLA MP Kumaraswamy announced his resignation from BJP and blamed national general secretary C T Ravi for not getting nominated.

Notably, Karnataka will witness the polls in a single phase on May 10, 2023, and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. Announcing the dates for elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the poll watchdog had laid special emphasis on new-age voters, women, transgender people, persons with disabilities, and vulnerable tribal groups. The poll-bound state which has 224 seats in the Assembly, currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and JD(S) has 28 seats.