By P.T. Bopanna
With the appointment of former Union minister Smrithi Irani as the national general secretary of the BJP, the chances of Reena Prakash (in picture) bagging the ticket for next Assembly election from Virajpet constituency in Kodagu district has become a certainty.
It is learnt that Reena has got good rapport with Smrithi, who will be in a strong position to lobby for a ticket. Besides, Reena has also cultivated other central leaders, including D. Purandeshwari, who is one of the new vice-presidents of the BJP.
Though Reena was tipped for a ticket in the past, she failed to get the ticket mainly because of the backing the losing BJP candidate K.G. Bopaiah had from former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, whose government survived mainly because of the arbitrary disqualification of opposition MLAs when Bopaiah was the Speaker of the Assembly.
Reena has been an active party worker and held important positions, including as president of State BJP Mahila Morcha and vice-chairman of the Coffee Board.
Unlike in the past, Congress has emerged strong following the election of A.S. Ponnanna in the last Assembly election. However, the rank and file of the BJP in the constituency is almost intact. Besides, Ponnanna is too pre-occupied with hyping his image through social media posts.
Another strong contender for the Virajpet assembly ticket from BJP is Ravi Kushalappa, former Kodagu zilla panchayat president. Of late, he has been active on social media, faulting the ruling Congress for the poor condition of the roads in the district.
Ravi Kushalappa should pay more attention towards mobilising people towards highlighting the grievances of farmers, man-animal conflict, shortage of power supply, etc.
Besides Ravi Kushalappa, there are businessmen hailing from Kodagu, who are also aspirant for the Virajpet ticket. But the party is unlikely to field an outsider, without any organisational base in the district.