Will win all four teachers’ and graduates’ seats: BJP

Dharwad: The ruling BJP appears to be rather confident of emerging triumphant in the biennial elections to the four seats in the legislative council – two graduates’ and as many teachers’ constituencies – this time around. The battle for the West Teachers’ constituency, of which Dharwad lies at the heart, will be particularly interesting this time around, given that veteran leader and former minister, Basavaraj Horatti, who has held the seat for a whopping 42 years, is contesting, for the first time, on a BJP ticket.
Dharwad MP and Pralhad Joshi, flagging off the saffron party’s campaign for the seat at Kadapa Maidan on Thursday, said, “Now that Horatti has joined the BJP, he will win the West Teachers’ seat by an unprecedented margin.”
Joshi, the Union minister for parliamentary affairs, said that the BJP-led government in the state would lean on Horatti’s vast experience in the education sector to ensure efficient implementation of the National Education Policy-2020.
Horatti’s induction into the BJP comes amidst a raging controversy over the proposed changes to the state’s textbooks. Several litterateurs and opposition leaders have questioned the addition and deletion of chapters in the textbooks. Responding to charges levelled by former chief minister Siddaramaiah among others, Joshi dismissed claims of lessons authored by Left-leaning writers and activists having been removed from the textbooks. “Those opposing this revision are intellectually bankrupt. For 58 years, the Congress ruled the country, throughout the course of which, several eminent personalities who contributed to our country’s growth were ignored,” the Dharwad MP said.
Karnataka ministers CC Patil, Halappa Achar, Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, Shvaram Hebbar, former CM Jagadish Shettar, too exuded confidence of the BJP sweeping the four seats, headed to the polls on June 13. They said that victory in the four seats would assure the saffron party of a majority in the upper house.
Horatti said that he would continue his fight for the welfare of teachers, and strive for the improvement of the education sector. “I was persuaded to join the BJP by my fellow teachers and supporters,” said Horatti, who in the company of BJP leaders, filed his nomination papers at the deputy commissioner’s office.
The nomination papers will be scrutinised on Friday.