Mangaluru : The BJP said here on Saturday that the door is open for Sangh Parivar activist Arun Kumar Puthila to join the party without imposing any condition. As a rebel (Independent) candidate in the last Assembly elections from Puttur, Mr. Puthila came second, relegating the BJP to third.

The BJP’s open invitation came after the president of Puthila Parivar Prasanna Kumar Martha announced in Puttur recently that Mr. Puthila will contest the Lok Sabha elections, as Mr. Martha maintained that there was no “positive response” from the BJP on the Puthila Parivar merging with the party.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, president of Dakshina Kannada unit of the party Satish Kumpala said that the party’s State president B.Y. Vijayendra has made it clear to Mr. Puthila that he can re-join the BJP as an ordinary worker. After that, the party will reward him suitably.

Mr. Kumpala said that during his (Mr. Puthila’s) meeting with Mr. Vijayendra the Sangh Parivar activist had expressed the desire that he should be made either president of the district unit or Puttur Assembly unit of the BJP. A few days ago, Mr. Puthila also set a deadline of three days for the BJP to decide on his re-union with the party.

“It is not right on his part to set such a deadline to the national party,” Mr. Kumpala said.

The BJP district president said that many other leaders of the party, including from the Puttur unit, had invited Mr. Puthila to join the party again. “Only Mr. Puthila should answer why he did not return,” Mr. Kumpala said.

He said that the BJP’s national president J.P. Nadda has asked all those who believed in the party’s principles to join to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Locally the party has formed a team, comprising MLAs D. Vedavyasa Kamath, Umanath A. Kotian, and MLC Pratapsimha Nayak, to facilitate “like-minded people” to join the BJP. The party is inviting Mr. Puthila to return as part of this initiative. “I am confident that he (Mr. Puthila) will return,” Mr. Kumpala said.

Meanwhile, the BJP has not yet appointed the new president for its Puttur Assembly unit with speculations floating till recently that Mr. Puthila may return.

In the last Assembly elections in Puttur, Mr. Puthila and the BJP candidate Asha Thimmappa Gowda together polled nearly 57% of votes while the Congress candidate Ashok Kumar Rai, who won, polled 36.38% of the votes. Mr. Puthila’s contest as a rebel resulted in a humiliating defeat for the BJP.