BJP State in-Charge Arun Singh likely to be replaced

by Dharmendra Pradhan or Kishan Reddy

Bengaluru: Even as  BJP’s Karnataka party in-Charge Arun Singh is on a three-day visit to the State, the BJP leadership is said to be mulling on replacing him with either Dharmendra Pradhan or Kishan Reddy, who are both   Union Ministers.

The BJP top brass is said to be unhappy with Singh’s failure to stem internal bickerings in Karnataka BJP unit, even after B.S. Yediyurappa was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai as the Chief Minister. 

Also some leaders of the State were unhappy with the style of functioning of Arun Singh, who is accused of failing to take any action against those leaders who openly gave statements  targeting a few party leaders.

Arun Singh’s statements that  always favoured Yediyurappa and his son B.Y. Vijayendra whenever complaints were raised against them, have not been taken kindly by the party leadership.

Arun Singh is said to be a relative of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and hence party leaders from the State tried to influence Arun through Rajnath Singh, which also has been taken note of by the BJP High Command. Now with Karnataka Assembly polls two years away, the BJP top brass wants to put its Karnataka Unit in order ahead of the Assembly polls. 

The party leadership, believing that Arun Singh cannot lead the party to a win in the Assembly polls, is said to be strongly considering replacing him with either Dharmendra Pradhan or Kishan Reddy. While Dharmendra Pradhan has the experience of being the Party in-Charge of Karnataka earlier, Kishan Reddy, who hails from neighbouring Telangana, is aware of the ongoings in the party and can handle the Karnataka party unit well.