Is jail the only thing BJP needs backward classes for, asks Palemar after ticket denial

Mangaluru, Apr 21: Expressing severe dissatisfaction over the ticket denial, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former minister Krishna J Palemar has said that the move would harm the party’s prospects in the region.

Speaking to media persons in the city on Saturday, the realtor-cum-politician came down heavily on Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel for allegedly preventing the party high command from issuing the B Form to the former. 

The outburst comes a day after BJP released its third and final list of candidates for the May 12 Karnataka assembly polls. The saffron party has fielded Dr Bharath Shetty from Mangaluru City North constituency instead of Mr Palemar, who was defeated by Congress leader B A Mohiuddin Bava in 2013.

“Does BJP require people of backward classes only to go to jails?,” questioned a visibly hurt Palemar, who was one of the most influential and powerful figures in the state politics during the previous BJP governments. 

Stating that the BJP has become a broken house in Mangaluru City North constituency, Mr Palemar said that the followers of another ticket aspirant, Sathyajit Surathkal, have now started pressurizing the latter to contest as an independent candidate. 

“This time BJP has issued tickets to four candidates of Bunt community in Dakshina Kannada district and completely ignored the people of backward classes. I feel sad to say that our own MP, for whose victory in Lok Sabha polls I had spent hugely, is responsible for this injustice,” said Mr Palemar. 

Also Read: ‘Palemar is hurt, he blamed me because he loves me’, says Kateel, downplays dissidence