Let the party take a call, says MLA Bhat

BJP MLA Raghupathi Bhat, who had been embroiled in a sleaze video that was put into circulation purportedly by his political adversaries three days ago, is now riding a sympathy wave that has turned the odds in his favour. He was firm that he would not contest the assembly election till Saturday, but pressure from his peers and voters has reportedly forced him to reconsider his options.

In addition, the BJP district unit meeting held on Sunday reaffirmed the candidature of Raghupathi Bhat and sent it to the state leadership.

“I have no fear of contesting, but in the past and now my name has been continually brought in by a few vested interests for all the wrong reasons, depicting me as a bad character. While I feel terrible for myself for allowing my detractors to play with my life, I feel that my image as projected by them should not affect the party’s image in this elections,” Bhat told DNA.

“District unit of the party has given me confidence by sending my name to the state unit, recommending my candidature. But I told the district unit president Uday Kumar Shetty that he must feel free to take his own decision on my candidature, to which he forwarded me a letter that he had sent to the state leadership. The letter was signed by the party functionaries. Subsequently, I told him that I will contest only if the state leadership wanted me to contest,” he added.

Meanwhile, Uday Kumar Shetty said: “Bhat had met the chief minister and the state party president and conveyed his decision of not contesting. But they asked him not to be so hasty, which gave us hopes that the party leaders in Bangalore will ask him to contest.”