Mysuru:  BJP is the only party which follows democratic principles while conducting its organisational elections, said Tourism Minister C.T. Ravi, here this morning.

Speaking after inaugurating the party membership drive at the City BJP Head Quarters at Sachin Rajendra Bhavan in Chamarajapuram, he said that Bharatiya Janata Party, which does not believe in family politics, follows democratic ideologies while choosing the party heads.

Taking a dig at the Opposition parties, Minister Ravi said that the Congress party had only been headed by the members of one family starting from the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru till the latest of  Sonia Gandhi being appointed as interim President of All India Congress Committee (AICC).

“Even the Samajwadi Party is also under the family rule,” he said and did not miss the chance to mention about former PM H.D. Deve Gowda and family.

“Few people posing to be the flag-bearers of secularism have only worked to help their family members and not for the welfare of the State. ‘Dodda’ Gowdru did nothing but practised casteism. Their party’s leadership was given to ‘Chikka’ Gowdru (former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy) and now the ‘Mari’ Gowdru (Nikhil Kumaraswamy) wants to spearhead the party. Yet, they claim to have not practised family politics” he said.

Referring to BJP, he said that a person (Amit Shah), who was only a Booth Committee President in 1982, had now become Union Home Minister which only proves that the party believes in giving opportunities to deserving candidates who had striven hard to strengthen the party from the grassroots.

MLAs S.A. Ramdas and L. Nagendra, State BJP General Secretary M. Rajendra, former MLC and BJP State Spokesperson Ashwath Narayan, City BJP President B.H. Manjunath, former KEA Chairman B.P. Manjunath and others were present during the occasion.