“There may be several differences of opinion among our leaders. But it is not dissidence,’’ BJP State president and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said in Belagavi on Thursday.
“Individual differences are bound to be there among leaders of all parties. They do not affect the party’s performance. The media should not project this as dissidence,’’ he said.
He was speaking to journalists after the party candidates filed nomination papers for the North West Graduates and Teachers constituencies.
“A party is like a family and it is possible that family members have differences of opinion. Such differences need to be resolved by sitting across the table,’’ he said.
He said that the BJP leadership too extensively deliberated on the party’s loss in the recent Legislative Council polls in Belagavi. “We have analysed the issue and resolved the matter. It is no longer an issue now. We have evolved a strategy to ensure that mistakes made in the past are not repeated,’’ he said.
Forest Minister Umesh Katti said that it is not proper on the part of the Congress to field Prakash Hukkeri, a non-teacher, in the elections to a teachers constituency. Mr. Hukkeri is a senior leader and former legislator. But he is not a teacher. He will not be able to properly represent teachers. Though BJP nominee Arun Shahapur is also not a teacher, he has worked for the cause of teachers in his first term, Mr. Katti said.
