Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday released a list of 189 candidates for the Karnataka assembly elections, fielding BS Yediyurappa’s younger son BY Vijayendra from Shikaripura in Shivamogga, an indication that the party high command may have taken into account the Lingayat strongman’s demand.
The BJP released the list for the polls, scheduled to be held on 10 May for the 224-member assembly, late Tuesday after several rounds of deliberations with state and central leaders. The results will be declared on 13 May.
Arun Singh, the BJP’s national general secretary in charge of Karnataka, said there were 52 new faces in the fray for the upcoming polls so far.
“If there is any party that gives a chance to new faces, it is the BJP,” Singh added. He said there were 32 candidates from the Other Backward Classes, 30 from the Scheduled Castes and 16 from the Scheduled Tribes in the list.
Singh said there were eight advocates, nine doctors, 31 postgraduates, one retired IPS and IAS officer each, and four retired government officers in the list. “There are eight women out of the 189 names,” he added.
Karnataka BJP strongman and former chief minister Yediyurappa has on multiple occasions indicated the possibility of a bigger role for his son and is believed to have pushed his son’s candidature with the party leadership.
V Somanna, the incumbent housing minister, has been named as the candidate from Varuna to fight against the Congress’s chief ministerial candidate, Siddaramaiah.
R Ashok, the sitting revenue minister, will contest from two seats, which include his existing seat of Padmanabhanagar and the other in Kanakpura, the stronghold of state Congress president DK Shivakumar.
Former Bengaluru city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao, who joined the BJP after he parted ways with the Aam Aadmi Party, will contest from Chamrajpet against Congress strongman Zameer Ahmed Khan.
Most of the leaders who helped topple the HD Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government have been retained, continuing the privileged treatment to all those who helped bring the BJP back to power in 2019.
The BJP released its first list barely 10 days before the final day for nominations, possibly indicating difficulties in trying to convince people in the party and managing expectations of all sections of state and central leaders.
The Congress has released two lists so far for 166 candidates in total, while the Janata Dal (Secular) has released 93 names.
Several senior leaders of the BJP in Karnataka have announced they will not contest the upcoming elections, which, observers say, is avoid the embarrassment of being left out in the lists. BS Yediyurappa, KS Eshwarappa and Halady Srinivas Shetty, among other senior leaders, have announced not to contest the elections.
Yashpal Suvarna, one of the people who had spearheaded the ban on hijab, has been accommodated from the Udupi seat, while sitting MLA Raghupati Bhat has been left out.
“@BJP4India’s Karnataka candidate list is a game-changer – fresh faces & proven leaders ready to deliver governance worthy of the 21st century. The opposition @INCKarnataka list is more of stale candidates stuck in the past like their party! The choice is clear #BJPYeBharavase,” K Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu BJP state president and Karnataka co-incharge, said on Twitter.
Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar said it was not right to tell him not to contest when there were only a few days left for nominations.
On Tuesday evening, Shettar held a press conference and said the high command asked him to stay out of the fray.
“There should have been an effort to give some respect to a former chief minister and a senior leader. If there was a feeling that I should not contest, they should have called me two or three months ago and expressed the same to me, told me that since I am a senior, I would be given other opportunities and asked me not to contest. It would have had some respect,” Shettar said.
He said the BJP leadership has assured him that they will reconsider their decision.
(Edited by Nisheeth Upadhyay)