BJP National General Secretary and former Karnataka minister CT Ravi has been appointed as the state in-charge for party affairs in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Goa. CT Ravi, who served as the Minister for Tourism, Kannada and Culture in the Yediyurappa cabinet, stepped down from his post on October 3 this year, after being given a higher rank in managing party affairs at the national level. He is also a four-time legislator from the Chikmagalur constituency in Karnataka, and is known for his hard-line Hindutva political stance.
Besides CT Ravi, the party made several other changes in management. The former BJP national secretary in-charge of Karnataka, P Muralidhar Rao, will now be in charge of party activities in Madhya Pradesh. Arun Singh, who was previously in charge of Odisha, will replace Rao as the in-charge of Karnataka.
Sources in the BJP’s high command revealed that the BJP wanted someone with experience in electoral politics in Tamil Nadu, as the party has a weak presence in the state. CT Ravi, known for his capabilities in strategic management of elections in Karnataka, has been appointed as the person in-charge of Tamil Nadu to help expand the party’s presence in the state as the Assembly elections are slated to take place in 2021. According to the source, CT Ravi has been appointed in Tamil Nadu to build up a “Hindu” vote bank for the party in the state.
CT Ravi has also been put in-charge of party affairs in Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance is in power. Sources said that he would oversee campaigns of the BJP, which is meant to identify the flaws in the coalition’s governance and gather support for the party, primarily in Mumbai city.
On #Diwali eve we get the good news of Shri.@CTRavi_BJP being appointed as Prabhari(In-charge) of @BJP4TamilNadu Unit. I am sure history will be made in Tamil Nadu politics with your appointment. Hearty Welcome to our state. I wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali Ravi Ji. pic.twitter.com/VCW4HwPgG0
— SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) November 14, 2020
CT Ravi garnered attention recently after he floated the idea of criminalising “love jihad” in Karnataka, which he termed is religious conversion for the sake of marriage. In the beginning of November, when UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that religious conversions for the sake of marriage should be criminalised, CT Ravi, too, echoed the need for this law. A few days later, the matter was also discussed in the BJP’s executive committee meeting in Mangaluru and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had announced that his government would bring in such a legislation “soon”.
In 2019, when the Supreme Court was hearing the case on the politically charged Babri Masjid demolition, CT Ravi stated that there was no need for “evidence” to conclude that the disputed land was the “Ram Janmabhoomi”. Also in 2019, the former Minister told TNM that the Karnataka government would hear a petition to ban the sale and consumption of beef in the state. However, the government did not go through with this plan.