By Express News Service
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: After hectic consultations for several days, the ruling BJP on late Tuesday night announced its first list of 189 candidates for Karnataka with 52 new faces, two days before the nomination process is scheduled to start. The second list is expected in a day or two.
In a bid to make the fight tough for the Congress’ chief ministerial aspirants, the BJP fielded revenue minister R Ashoka against state Congress president D K Shivakumar in his pocket-borough Kanakapura and housing minister V Somanna against former CM Siddaramaiah in Varuna, which the Congress considers a safe seat.
Ashoka will also contest from his Padmanabhanagar seat in Bengaluru, while Somanna from Chamarajnagar. “In the last elections, Siddaramaiah won with a narrow margin (in Badami against B Sriramulu) and this time we are 100% sure of defeating him,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said while releasing the first list in Delhi.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will seek re-election from his home constituency Shiggaon in Haveri district. Former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra will contest from the Shikaripura segment that was represented by the former — party’s Lingayat strongman for nearly four decades.
Former IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, who recently left the AAP to join the BJP will be the party’s candidate from Chamarajpet in Bengaluru to take on Congress’s Zameer Ahmed Khan, while former IAS officer Anil Kumar will take former deputy CM G Paremeshwara in Koratagere in Tumakuru.
The party is fielding 52 new faces to overcome anti-incumbency, while also retaining most of the heavyweights, including turncoats who had helped the BJP form its government in 2019. The BJP had adopted a similar strategy in the UP and Gujarat polls.
The party, which is also banking on the state government’s reservation policy revamp, is fielding 30 from Scheduled Castes (SC), 16 from Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 32 from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The numbers may increase when BJP releases names for the remaining segments.
The list was prepared after a detailed consultation process involving 25,000 party workers from the assembly segments, Singh and Pradhan said.
Shettar furious; Savadi droppedThere was some heartburn among the senior BJP leaders, who went public expressing their displeasure. While former CM Jagadish Shettar rejected a suggestion to make way for a new face, former deputy CM Laxman Savadi appealed to the high command to reconsider its decision to drop him
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: After hectic consultations for several days, the ruling BJP on late Tuesday night announced its first list of 189 candidates for Karnataka with 52 new faces, two days before the nomination process is scheduled to start. The second list is expected in a day or two.
In a bid to make the fight tough for the Congress’ chief ministerial aspirants, the BJP fielded revenue minister R Ashoka against state Congress president D K Shivakumar in his pocket-borough Kanakapura and housing minister V Somanna against former CM Siddaramaiah in Varuna, which the Congress considers a safe seat.
Ashoka will also contest from his Padmanabhanagar seat in Bengaluru, while Somanna from Chamarajnagar. “In the last elections, Siddaramaiah won with a narrow margin (in Badami against B Sriramulu) and this time we are 100% sure of defeating him,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said while releasing the first list in Delhi.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will seek re-election from his home constituency Shiggaon in Haveri district. Former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra will contest from the Shikaripura segment that was represented by the former — party’s Lingayat strongman for nearly four decades.
Former IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, who recently left the AAP to join the BJP will be the party’s candidate from Chamarajpet in Bengaluru to take on Congress’s Zameer Ahmed Khan, while former IAS officer Anil Kumar will take former deputy CM G Paremeshwara in Koratagere in Tumakuru.
The party is fielding 52 new faces to overcome anti-incumbency, while also retaining most of the heavyweights, including turncoats who had helped the BJP form its government in 2019. The BJP had adopted a similar strategy in the UP and Gujarat polls.
The party, which is also banking on the state government’s reservation policy revamp, is fielding 30 from Scheduled Castes (SC), 16 from Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 32 from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The numbers may increase when BJP releases names for the remaining segments.
The list was prepared after a detailed consultation process involving 25,000 party workers from the assembly segments, Singh and Pradhan said.
Shettar furious; Savadi dropped
There was some heartburn among the senior BJP leaders, who went public expressing their displeasure. While former CM Jagadish Shettar rejected a suggestion to make way for a new face, former deputy CM Laxman Savadi appealed to the high command to reconsider its decision to drop him
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