Karnataka election BJP first list: Taking the fight to the opposition camp, the ruling BJP on Tuesday fielded as many as 52 candidates and retained 90 sitting MLAs, including 11 from the Congress and JDS who crossed over in 2019 to help it wrest power from the coalition, for the upcoming May 10 Karnataka elections.
With its first list, the saffron party has released the names of 189 candidates of the 224 constituencies for the polls, results for which will be declared on May 13.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will seek reelection from his traditional Shiggaon constituency, while former Karnataka CM son B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra would enter fray from Shikaripura, the seat vacated by his father who has announced retirement from electoral politics, Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh said at a press conference in New Delhi.
From the Varuna and Kanakapura seats, where Congress heavyweights former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar are contesting respectively, the party has fielded senior Ministers V Somanna and R Ashoka. While Somanna will also contest from Chamarajanagar, and Ashoka from Padmanabhanagar segments.
Former Minister C P Yogeshwar is once again pitted against Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy, a former Chief Minister, in Channapatna.
Singh announced that 32 of the candidates belong to OBCs, 30 Scheduled Castes and 16 Scheduled Tribes, and the first list comprise of nine doctors, five advocates, three academics, one retired IAS officer, one retired IPS officer, three retired government employees and eight social activists.
Former IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, who briefly joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before switching to BJP, has been fielded from Chamarajpet in Bengaluru while former commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike and retired IAS officer Anil Kumar will contest from Koratagere.
Former government official L C Nagaraj, who was accused in the ponzi IMA scam, is contesting from Madhugiri in Tumkur.
The BJP has not announced tickets yet to Shivamogga and Hubballi-Dharwad Central, the seats represented by senior leaders K S Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar. On Tuesday, the former deputy CM Eshwarappa in a letter to party national president JP Nadda said that he wished to retire from electoral politics and requested it to not consider fielding him in the Assembly polls.
At least eight legislators including Minister Angara, representing Sulia, have been denied the ticket.
Sitting MLAs who didn’t feature in the list also include Sanjeeva Matandoor of Puttur, Raghupathy Bhat of Udupi who was at the forefront of the hijab controversy, Lalaji Mendon of Kapu, Halady Srinivas of Kundapura, Goolihatti Shekhar of Hosadurga, Ramanna Lamani of Shirahatti, Anil Benake of Belagavi Uttar and Yadwad Shivalingappa of Ramdurg.
For the May 10 polls, filing of nominations will begin on April 13 and last day of nominations is April 20.
The party, which is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and on the robust nature of the party organisation to return to power in Karnataka, has set a target for itself to win atleast 150 seats in the 224-member Assembly.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is a party observer for the Karnataka polls, said at the press conference that the PM is going to extensively campaign for the upcoming polls to retain its only bastion in South India.
He also stressed on the “freshness” factor in the list.