Poojari, who hails from the Billava community, has already served as the leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in the Council.
Published Dec 25, 2023 | 5:32 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 25, 2023 | 5:32 PM
Kota Shrinivas Poojari. (Facebook)
The Karnataka BJP on Monday, 25 December, announced the appointment of senior party MLC and former Minister Kota Shrinivas Poojari as the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, and MLA Arvind Bellad as Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.
The BJP also has also appointed its MLCs Sunil Vallyapure and N Ravikumar respectively as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and its Chief Whip respectively in the legislative council— the upper house; while party MLA Doddanagouda G Patil has been named as the Chief Whip in the lower house of the state legislature.
In a press release announcing these appointments, state BJP President BY Vijayendra said, “Appointments have been made as per the directions of party national President JP Nadda.”
After the Assembly polls in May in which Congress swept to power, the BJP participated in two legislature sessions— in July and earlier this December— without appointments to these key posts, which had drawn large-scale criticism from ruling Congress and some sections of the society.
In fact, the post of the Legislature Party leader or the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly was also vacant till November, until R Ashoka was appointed, ahead of the legislature session earlier this month.
After the appointment of Ashoka as the LoP and Vijayendra as the party’s state unit president in November, which led to some amount of disgruntlement in the BJP, there was a lot of speculation within the party, as to who would occupy other key legislature posts amid large number of aspirants and lobbying.
Poojari, who hails from the Billava community and has a Sangh Parivar background, has already served as both leader of the house and opposition leader in the Legislative Council.
The appointment of Bellad and Patil as Deputy Leader of the Opposition and chief whip in the Legislative Assembly respectively is significant considering that both hail from the north Karnataka region, as there was open disgruntlement in the state BJP, about the region not being given enough representation after Ashoka and Vijayendra were given posts.
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