Bengaluru, Feb 27: Karnataka Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa turned 78 on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of leaders greeting him.
Modi hailed Yediyurappa as a "hardworking" chief minister and wished him long life and good health, while several state leaders flocked to his residence and greeted the Lingayat strongman.
"Birthday greetings to Karnataka's hardworking CM @BSYBJP Ji. He is passionately working for the state's progress, especially on farmer welfare and rural development. I pray for his long life and good health," the Prime Minister tweeted.
A large-scale "non-partisan" birthday bash will be held here later in the evening.
The felicitation function will see Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and former chief minister S M Krishna besides Siddaramaiah of Congress and H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) sharing the stage.
Union Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda, also a former chief minister, Pralhad Joshi and Suresh Angadi will be in attendance.
BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) B L Santosh and state party chief Nalin Kumar Kateel are among those who will be gracing the event.
While Santosh will release a felicitation volume in Kannada with 78 articles from a cross-section of people, including politicians, writers, bureaucrats, and spiritual leaders; Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy will unveil a coffee table book and documentary respectively.
Yediyurappa, on the eve of his birthday on Wednesday, had said whatever he has achieved is a result of the people's "blessings and faith" and requested well-wishers not to bring bouquets, flowers, shawls, sweets, turbans or any souvenirs to greet him.
The birthday function organised by "Yediyurappa Abhinandana Samiti" (Yediyurappa Felicitation Committee) is being seen in some quarters as an attempt by Yediyurappa and his loyalists to send a message to the party leadership that he was still "strong".
The BJP's current dispensation under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah has retired several senior party leaders who crossed the age of 75.
However, an exception was said to have been made in Yediyurappa's case after the BJP won 25 of 28 seats in the Lok Sabha election under his leadership.
In the 2018 elections, he spearheaded the campaign of the BJP which emerged as the single largest party but fell short of the majority mark following which Congress and JD(S) came to power stitching a post-poll pact.
However, the coalition collapsed in July last year, paving the way for return of Yediyurappa as Chief Minister for the fourth time.
Comments
aree bhai.... animals are not our parents.... Muslims dont worship animalsss... go and take all cows from your modiji's freinds who are exporting your mata to other countries..... they are in cow trafficking......
How about your uncles of Al Kabeer Beef exporter. Your for uncle is chipanjee so what we will convert as chipanji and stay in jungle.
Stop non sense and be like a human don't try to spoil HINDU religion.
Hope you and your Head quarter manage to understand above message.
I am sure that this bjp leader Ranjit has completely gone mad and it will be better for bjp to kick him out from the party. His baseless + senseless statement will lead to riot. Hence,. he shuld be arrested under terrorist / goonda act immediately. According to scientiest Darwin, human being are coming from apes / monkeys. Based on this, ancistors of this hate monger were apes / monkeys. I would like to know when this hate monger will go to jungle to stay with his ancistors. We will give nice party to him. Why this hate monger is not caring about cows which are let lose in the roads and dying due to hunger. Why dont he take care of them. He is only after the cows which muslims are taking care. As cows are his Matas, he should visit to other countries also to take care of them. Why is not bothered about hundreds of cows being slaughtered for beef export by sangh exporters in Gujrat. Why he has double standard. I doubt he is one of the beef exporters and making crores and low being expressed for cow is a jumla like his Master. Has he dare enough to agitate in front of beef exporting houses in Gujrat. He will be kicked out if he does so. Shame on you guy. Be a human being first. Live and let live others. There is limit for everything . Dont cross the limit.
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