On June 24, BJP representative Nalin Kumar Kateel announced his resignation as president of the Karnataka BJP. Nalin Kateel told reporters in Ballari that he was accepting’moral responsibility’ for the BJP’s loss in the recently concluded Karnataka elections and that he had informed the party’s leadership of his decision.
“I have said I take moral responsibility for the election defeat … have informed them orally and in writing about my resignation. Our national team will think about it and make a decision,” Nalin Kateel said. “My two-year term as state president of the BJP has come to a close. I have resigned on this account too,” he added.
In Karnataka, the BJP lost the legislative elections after it won only 66 of the 224 seats in the Karnataka legislative. The party has yet to appoint a leader of the opposition in the Assembly despite being the principal opposition in the state. The impending resignation of Nalin has sparked speculation about his successor.
In August of 2019, Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kateel was elevated to the position of BJP state president, replacing former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.
In Karnataka, Nalin Kateel has frequently confronted the ire of BJP supporters. The 2019 appointment of Nalin Kateel, a Hindutva hardliner with little influence outside of his native district of Dakshina Kannada, as state president raised eyebrows within the BJP. He was regarded as a link between then-chief minister BS Yediyurappa and BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh. He was also mocked for the over ten-year delay in the completion of the Pumpwell viaduct in Mangaluru, which was inaugurated in 2020.
When Nalin Kateel visited the family of slain BJP Yuva Morcha member Praveen Nettaru in Bellare, Dakshina Kannada district, in July 2022, angry Hindutva supporters surrounded and pushed the vehicle carrying him.
Prior to the state elections, Nalin Kateel was criticised for a statement in which he urged people to prioritise ‘love jihad’ over development. Love Jihad is a right-wing conspiracy theory that asserts Muslim males intentionally marry Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam.
Recently, Hindutva supporters in Puttur demonstrated against Nalin Kateel and adorned a banner with photographs of Nalin and the former chief minister of Karnataka, Sadananda Gowda, with chappals. Two Puttur police officers were suspended for assaulting the men accused of displaying the derogatory banner about Nalin Kateel. Supporters of Hindutva leader Arun Kumar Putthila, who is vying for the BJP nomination from Dakshina Kannada in the impending 2024 Lok Sabha elections, raised the banner.
