Dissent in BJP over Council ticket; disciplinary panel president resigns

A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its list of candidates for the Legislative Council election, including West Graduates Constituency, upset over not being considered for the party ticket, BJP State Disciplinary Committee president Lingaraj Patil announced his resignation to the post on Wednesday.

The BJP has announced party ticket to incumbent MLC from West Graduates Constituency S.V. Sankanur belying expectations in the BJP circle about a change of candidate. The other two BJP candidates are Shashil G. Namoshi for North East Teachers’ constituency and K.M. Suresh for the South East Graduates constituency.

Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Wednesday, Mr. Lingaraj Patil announced that he was resigning from the post, extremely hurt by the party’s decision to field Mr. Sankanur again. “The party has taken the decision to field him again in spite of objections raised by several members of the party,” he said.

He said he had been associated with the BJP for the past 37 years and served the party with sincerity and discipline, but had been treated unfairly. He said he had tendered his resignation and would wait for eight more days to see whether the party would reconsider its decision.