New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the in-charge for the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls, a party statement said Saturday. Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai has been appointed as the co-incharge.
For 38-year-old Annamalai, this is the first election responsibility of a state outside Tamil Nadu. This is a significant responsibility for the former 2011-batch IPS officer who joined the BJP in 2020 and became the youngest state party president in 2021.
Election to the 224-member Karnataka assembly are likely to be held in April-May this year.
An OBC (Other Backward Classes) leader, Pradhan is an old hand when it comes to election management — he earlier managed polls in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, all of which are now BJP-ruled states.
“Pradhan has been a convincing election manager in the eyes of Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi and [Union Home minister] Amit Shah. He has managed poll campaigns in other states successfully. He is a figure who is equally respected inside the party and its allies. His performance in other states was also appreciated by the top leadership and Karnataka is a crucial state, which is why it has been given to Pradhan”, party sources told ThePrint.
A senior party leader, who didn’t wish to be named, told ThePrint, “Pradhan’s ability to take along every faction helped in every state. Even in coalition government in Bihar, Nitish [Kumar] respected Pradhan. The situation deteriorated swiftly in Bihar when Bhupendra Yadav was deployed as in-charge of the state. In 2019, it was Pradhan who worked with every faction in UP to deliver a handsome victory in Lok Sabha polls.”
It was Pradhan, who during Yediyurappa’s first term as CM, handled Karnataka when the latter was facing corruption charges and there was infighting within BJP in 2010. Pradhan enjoys a warm relationship with strongman Yediyurappa whose support is crucial for the BJP to win the election.
Currently, the BJP is in power in Karnataka after it won 104 seats in the 2018 elections. The party had formed a government under BS Yediyurappa, however, BS Bommai took over as the chief minister after Yediyurappa resigned in 2021.
In the previous 2018 Karnataka elections, former education minister Prakash Javadekar was the election in-charge.
Electorally, Karnataka is an important state as it is one of the few states in south India where the BJP has a significant presence. Winning the state elections in Karnataka would give the BJP a boost in its efforts to expand its reach in south India, where it is traditionally weak. A victory in Karnataka is also said to help the BJP in the 2024 general elections, as the state has 28 parliamentary seats and the party could use the momentum to its advantage.
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