Bangalore : The BJP Legislature Party meeting on Tuesday unanimously elected former chief minister Jagadish Shettar as its floor leader in the 14th Assembly.

The meeting, held in the presence of former party national president Nitin Gadkari, decided that former home minister R Ashoka will be Shettar’s deputy in the Lower House.

The BJP, which held a series of meetings to introspect on its poor performance in the Assembly polls, at its headquarters in Malleswaram, also elected former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda as the party leader in the Legislative Council and K B Shanappa his deputy.

By virtue of its strength in the Council, Gowda will be the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.

In the Assembly, the JD(S), by virtue of its higher vote share, will hold the post of Leader of the Opposition as both BJP and the JD(S) secured equal number of seats (40) in the polls.

The  BJP, which had announced Shettar as its chief ministerial candidate in the elections, was initially thinking of making a second rung nominee as its leader in the Lower House, following its defeat in the polls. However, it has decided to retain Shettar so as not to further alienate its one time votebase, the Lingayat community, which preferred the Congress in the May 5 elections.

The BJP has tried to get its social equation right by electing Gowda and Ashoka, both Vokkaligas, and Shanappa, a dalit. Pralhad Joshi, a Brahmin, is the party’s State president.

Addressing the BJPLP, Gadkari urged the members to forget the past (the defeat in the elections) and work towards facing the Lok Sabha elections.

“Victory and defeat are routine in a democracy. We faced the elections bravely, we did not run away from it,” Gadkari said. He said the path shown by former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was still relevant and every partyman should follow it in letter and spirit.

He said the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was on a “sticky wicket” and could collapse any time.

“There is enough potential to rebuild the party in the State in the next few months and in time for the Lok Sabha polls,”  he said. Briefing reporters about the outcome of the slew of meetings, party spokesperson Ayanur Manjunath said the party would hold district-level conventions to strengthen the organisation on May 20 and 21. The party would hold ‘jail bharo’ agitations against price rise and anti-people programmes of the UPA government at the district level on May 27 and in Bangalore on May 29.

The BJP will hold a meeting of its district presidents and also defeated candidates in the polls in Bangalore on Wednesday.-DH News