BJP never wants to lose any of its members but discipline is supreme for party Agrawal

    Bengaluru, May 28 (PTI) BJP national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal on Wednesday said that the saffron party never wants to lose any of its members, but discipline is supreme for the party.
    The BJP in Karnataka on Tuesday expelled two of its MLAs, S T Somashekar and A Shivaram Hebbar, for six years for alleged "anti-party activities."
    Somashekar and Hebbar represent Yashwanthpur and Yellapur Assembly constituencies respectively.
    Agrawal, who is also in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka, said the BJP gave ample opportunities to Somashekar, Hebbar and Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal to mend their ways, but they did not change.
    The saffron party never wants to lose any of its members, but discipline is supreme for the party. Indiscipline will not be tolerated irrespective of how influential that person is, Agrawal underlined.
    The senior BJP leader alleged that the Congress government had filed a defamation suit against his party for publishing an advertisement in a newspaper pointing to the irregularities.
    He challenged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to come for an open debate with the BJP state president B Y Vijayendra.
    "If he (Siddaramaiah) has guts and confidence that the allegations against him are baseless, then he should accept our challenge. If he declines then it should be perceived that all the allegations are true, backed by facts and represent people’s sentiments," said the Rajya Sabha member.
    Citing some survey reports, Agarwal claimed that if the Assembly elections are held today, the BJP will get 150 to 155 seats and form the government. Karnataka has 224 Assembly constituencies.
    He also said that if the diminishing popularity of the Congress continues, then the ruling party in Karnataka will not be able to fetch seats in double digits.
    Reacting to the murder of Abdul Rahiman and grievous injuries to his co-worker Kalandar Shafi on Tuesday in Mangaluru, the district headquarter town of Dakshina Kannada, Agrawal alleged that it was due to the Congress' "Muslim appeasement".
    Police have named Deepak, Sumith and 13 others as the suspects.
    Rahiman's murder comes close on the heels of Hindu activist Suhas Shetty's killing on May 1 in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada district.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)