A.S. Patil Nadahalli has now become popular as a ‘party hopper’ for quitting two different parties in the last five years of his tenure as MLA.
On Wednesday, Mr. Nadahalli joined the BJP in the presence of party’s State president B.S. Yeddyurappa in Bengaluru. With this, the BJP has become the third party, which Mr. Nadahalli has joined by quitting the JD(S) with which he was associated for less than a year.
In 2013 Assembly polls, Mr. Nadahalli fought election on Congress ticket and became one of the seven Congress MLAs who won in eight Assembly segments of Vijayapura district. But, in 2015, he started a campaign demanding separate Statehood tag for North Karnataka and accused his own Congress government of neglecting this region.
After he continued to blame his party and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for not allocating adequate funds for this region, the party sacked him.
Following this, Mr. Nadahalli joined the JD(S) and declared that he is going to contest from Muddebihal taluk instead of Devarahipparagi on JD(S) ticket. His association with JD(S) did not last long after his demand to give ticket to his wife from Devarahipparagi was rejected by JD(S).
Does he fear defeat?
Many local leaders believe that the reason he was asking ticket for his wife is because of the fear of his possible defeat from Muddebihal.
“Mr. Nadahalli has done nothing for the development of Devarahipparagi, and he wanted development of NK region. Unable to face the public anger, he has decided to switch over Muddebihal. As a second plan to retain power, he wants his wife to fight election, which JD(S) has refused,” said a local leader of Devarahipparagi.
Though Mr. Nadahalli has now joined BJP, it is amid much resistance from within the party as leaders do not want an ‘outsider’ to get ticket from Muddebihal.
It will now be a challenge for Mr. Nadahalli to win confidence of local BJP leaders in coming election. Meanwhile, there is still no clarity on whether the party will offer ticket to his wife from Devarahipparagi.
