Sacked NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh joins BJP

BANGALORE: Nirmala Venkatesh,
who was recently sacked as member of the National Commission
for Women (NCW), on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), a senior leader of the party said. She
also expressed her willingness to contest in the Lok
Sabha polls if given a ticket.

A former member of the Karnataka legislative council,
Ms. Venkatesh resigned from the Congress Feb 28 after
she was involved in a spat with Union Minister for Women
and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury over her controversial
report on the attack on young women at a Mangalore pub
Jan 24 by activists of the rightwing Hindu group Sri
Ram Sene.

“Nirmala has been admitted into the BJP and will
campaign for the party in the parliamentary poll to
expose the Congress,” BJP Mahila Morcha general
secretary Mangala Sridhar told reporters at the party
office here.

In the run-up to joining the ruling party in the state,
Vankatesh met BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K.
Advani at a rally in the city Feb 28.

“I am ready to contest in the Lok Sabha elections
if given a ticket by the party from any constituency
in the state. Even otherwise, I will campaign for the
party to expose the political conspiracy against me
to tarnish my image,” Venkatesh said.

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