Former minister A H Vishwanath will return to active politics soon: Karnataka BJP chief

MANGALURU: Former minister A H Vishwanath will return to an active role in state politics shortly. Vishwanath lost out to a decision of BJP leadership to accommodate party workers - Sunil Vallyapure and Pratap Simha Nayak in the recent election of members from the state assembly to the council while partly taking care of word given to MLAs who quit their seats to help BJP form the government, state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel said.
While Vallyapure had given up his Chincholi assembly seat to enable BJP field newcomer Avinash Jadhav for the by-polls from that constituency, the party accommodated Nayak over Vishwanath in line with its policy to reward party loyalists. The selection of MTB Nagaraj and R Shankar was in accordance with the party's decision to accommodate 17 legislators who parted ways with Congress and the JD(S)to help form the BJP government, he said.
Felicitating Nayak, Ravishankar Mijar and Harikrishna Bantwal on their election to the council, and nomination as chairmen of MUDA and Keonics Ltd respectively on Tuesday, Nalin said Vishwanath will be politically rewarded. BJP has shown the party rewards loyalists later if not sooner in case of Nayak and Mijar and honour word given to Harikrishna who parted ways with his mentor and former KPCC president B Janardhan Poojary to join BJP.
Recalling the role that Nayak played in shaping his political career in that he had joined the party from RSS when Nayak headed DK unit of BJP, Nalin said it was his fortune that he had the chance to hand over the party B form to his mentor ahead of the council election. Nayak is epitome of party workers who do not fret at missed political chances nor lobby for it and the workers can be rest assured that the likes of Nayak will get their due, he said.
Nayak who reciprocated the warmth of his prodigy said that his name finally figured officially in party nomination after Nalin became the state party chief. Recalling instances when his name had figured in similar lists before, Nayak said he took all such previous developments stoically and the present development is a clear indicator that with patience comes rewards and that he will strive to discharge his present responsibility to the best of his abilities.