BELLARY: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bellary district suffered another setback when B. Sriramulu, Minister for Tourism and Textiles, who was also district in-charge Minister, was shifted from Bellary and made in-charge of Gadag district.

Second jolt

This is the second jolt for the BJP in the past one month. The first one came when the party placed Mr. Janardhan Reddy, MLC and president of the district, under suspension after he levelled the Rs. 150-crore bribery charge against Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, Home Minister M.P. Prakash and Minister for Forests C. Chennigappa on the floor of the Legislative Council. The second was making Sriramulu in-charge minister of Gadag district.

The BJP, which was almost a stranger to Bellary district, later got the Bellary City Municipal Council and wrested the Bellary Lok Sabha seat from the Congress held by it since 1952, besides bagging three Assembly seats and gaining control of the zilla and three taluk panchayats in the district.

The party owed the success to the efforts put in by Mr. Janardhan Reddy and Mr. Sriramulu.

Under these circumstances, replacing of Mr. Sriramulu by senior Janata Dal (S) leader and Home Minister M.P. Prakash has raised many an eyebrow in the party and among the public.

Party workers are at a loss to understand how the State BJP leaders and Deputy chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa could agree for the change.

Emergency meeting

Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting held here on Saturday, BJP members of the zilla panchayat have urged the Government to let Mr. Sriramulu continue as the Minister in charge of the district.

They have also urged BJP leaders to immediately take up the matter with the Chief Minister.

Members threatened that if their demand was not conceded to, they would boycott all meetings to be chaired by Mr. Prakash.

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