BJP to take out 'Nav Karnataka Parivartan Yatra' to expose graft

New Delhi, Aug 27: The BJP has decided to take out "Nav Karnataka Parivartan Yatra" to expose corruption in chief minister Siddaramaiah's government ahead of next year's assembly election.

The move was firmed up after a three-and-half-an-hour meeting of BJP's Karnataka core group which was convened by BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday.

Emerging out of the meeting, the party's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa told reporters that the BJP has vowed to take out Nava Karnataka Parivartan Yatra to put the Congress government on the mat on corruption.

The yatra will start from November 1 to coincide with KannadaRajyotsava, said party sources. The former CM stated it will be modeled on rath yatra and committees will be formed at the districts level to chart out a blueprint for its effective execution.

Shah is believed to have asked its state leaders to pull up its socks after the party failed to exploit IT raids against Congress minister DK Shivakumar. The party high command has asked poll managers to prepare a timeline for executing different agendas outlined during Shah's three-day Karnataka tour which took place mid month, a BJP leader who attended the brainstorming session said.

Others who participated in the meeting were union ministers Ananth Kumar, DV Sadananda Gowda and Prakash Javadekar, who has been made poll in-charge, party leaders Ram Lal, Muralidhar Rao, BL Santosh, Jagdish Shettar, KS Eswarappa, CM Udasi, CT Ravi, R Ashok and Govind Karjol.

When asked what the BJP's strategy would be to counter CM Siddaramaiah's attempts to revive cases against Yeddyurappa, another party leader present in the deliberations, said the party will gain out of it since the Lingayat leader will "earn sympathy" as everyone understands that it showed their vindictiveness.

The meeting was held in two batches with the leaders first assembling at Ananth Kumar's house and followed it with another at Shah's residence.