The governing BJP selected on Tuesday to field heavyweights against key Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar in the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections, stepping up the struggle against the opposition camp and livening up the political scene.
Of of the total 224 seats, the party has announced candidates for 189 of them, and 52 new names are on the list.
A ticket has been refused to at least eight parliamentarians, including Minister Angara of Sulia.
Lightweights vs Lightweights
The Karnataka Congress chairman Shivakumar and senior ministers V Somanna and R Ashoka will be challenging former chief minister Siddaramaiah in Varuna and Kanakapura, respectively.
From the Chamarajanagar and Padmanabhanagar sectors, Somanna and Ashoka will also compete.
Former minister C P Yogeshwar and former chief minister and head of the Janata Dal (Secular), H D Kumaraswamy, will clash once again in Channapatna.
Somanna is a member of the Lingayat group, which is well-represented in Varuna, whereas Ashoka is seen as the party’s outspoken Vokkaliga face, which also includes Shivakumar.
As anticipated, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will run for re-election in his long-held Shiggaon district, while B Y Vijayendra will run for the seat now held by his father, former CM B S Yediyurappa, who has declared his retirement from electoral politics, in Shikaripura.
The Demographics of the BJP’s First List
Arun Singh, the BJP’s Karnataka state coordinator, revealed the names during a press conference in New Delhi, noting that 32 of the candidates are OBCs, 30 are members of Scheduled Castes, and 16 are members of Scheduled Tribes.
He claimed the first list includes eight social activists, three academics, three retired government workers, one retired IAS official, nine physicians, five advocates, and three academics.
The two major groups in the State, 51 Lingayats and 41 Vokkaligas, are represented among the candidates, according to party sources.
Who was issued a ticket and who was not
In Vijayanagara, the party chose Siddharth Singh against his father, Minister Anand Singh, while in Athani, it chose Mahesh Kumathalli over former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who had assisted the BJP in forming government in 2019 by leaving the Congress.
Savadi may now enter the House, according to some sources.
Most of the MLAs who joined the BJP after making a defection, aiding it in gaining power, and who went on to win the ensuing by-elections on a BJP platform have kept their seats.
The constituencies held by senior stalwarts K S Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar, Shivamogga and Hubballi-Dharwad Central, have not yet received tickets from the party.
While former chief minister Shettar claimed the party’s top brass told him to make way for others but insisted he wants to run for office one last time, former deputy chief minister Eshwarappa said today that he wishes to retire from electoral politics and asked the party’s central leadership to not consider fielding him in the Assembly elections.
Although the majority of his cabinet colleagues have been given the go-ahead, Minister Angara is one among few who has not.
Lalaji R Mendon (Kapu), Raghupathi Bhat (Udupi), Anil S. Benake (Belagavi North), Sanjeev Matandur (Puturu), Mahadevappa Shivalingappa Yadawad MLA (Ramdurg), Ramanna Lamani (Shirahatti), and Goolihatti D. Shekhar are the other seven existing MLAs who have not been re-nominated (Hosadurga).
The party has not yet revealed its 35 seat candidates.
The poll notice is sent on April 13, and nominations may be submitted starting on that day until April 20.
The BJP has set a goal of winning at least 150 of the 224 Assembly seats in order to return to power in Karnataka with an absolute majority.
