Pratapsimha Nayak is District BJP President

Mangalore, Aug 26: K Pratapsimha Nayak has been elected unanimously as the new President of the Dakshina Kannada District BJP for the year 2013-15.

The election process was held at the party's district office here under the Presidentship of K Padmanabha Kottari, the outgoing District President.

K Monappa Bhandari, MLC was the election officer.

The new District President will take charge at a function to be held at CV Nayak Hall on August 31 at 11 am.

Pratapsimha Nayak hails from Belthangady. Kota Srinivas Poojari, MLC, Rukmaya Poojari, Yogish Bhat, Mallika Prasad, former MLAs, B Devadas Shetty, Sanjeeva Matandoor, and other BJP leaders were present.

The election to the post of District BJP President, which was supposed to be held before the Assembly elections have finally been held.

The election was postponed several times due to political reasons but on Saturday the leaders came together and elected Mr Prathapasimha Nayak as the captain of the BJP's ship in the district, for the second time.

During the elections, the office had some local leaders taking part. The absence of the state level leaders was evident.

Mr Nayak had led the district BJP once in the past and had given able leadership undoubtedly. However, when the BJP was in power, Mr Nayak did not gain much from the party.

Now that the BJP is not in power, he has been given the onus of fortifying the party all over again.

Though there were demands from various quarters to have Mr Nayak as the candidate for the Assembly polls from Belthangady, the caste lobby and power of Gangadhar Gowda overpowered the traditional BJP members.

The result was that Ranjan Gowda, son of Gangadhar Gowda was fielded and BJP lost its face in the worst possible manner as Mr Ranjan Gowda failed to give tough competition to the Congress.

The immediate past President of BJP Padmanabha Kottary's term ended in December last. The election was not held after this, citing several internal reasons and assembly elections.

After the disastrous defeat in the polls, nobody was ready to take up the responsibility of the district BJP.

Though the leaders had pleaded in front of many leaders, nobody dared to take the onus of saving the sinking ship of BJP.

After the names of former MLA Yogish Bhat and BJP leader Srikhar Prabhu were heard, the speculations have ended with Mr Nayak emerging as the District BJP president.