Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snubbed senior leader K. S. Eshwarappa as it denied the Shivamogga city ticket to the sitting legislator’s son for the 10 May Karnataka assembly elections.
In its last and final list released late Wednesday, the party named S. N. Channabasappa, a Lingayat, as the Shivamogga candidate. From Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved constituency Manvi, the party has fielded B. V. Nayak, who quit the Congress and joined BJP earlier this week. With this, the BJP has announced candidates on all 224 seats in the state. There is unlikely to be any change to the list as Thursday is the last day for filing nominations.
The announcement came a week after Eshwarappa, a five-time MLA from Shivamogga and one of the most prominent Kuruba (a backward Hindu caste) leaders of the BJP, opted out of the poll contest and announced his retirement from electoral politics.
While there has been resentment over ticket distribution, on his part, Eshwarappa said that they have their task cut out and have to ensure Channabasappa’s victory by a big margin. Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, he said, “The BJP has named Channabasappa from Shivamogga. He has worked to build the organisation in the district, served in various roles, and undertaken different responsibilities.”
Eshwarappa’s son K. E. Kantesh has been a zilla panchayat chairman earlier and had mobilised support to get a ticket for the coming assembly elections, according to media reports. He had also met B.S. Yediyurappa to seek his support.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said Wednesday that the BJP is working to counter the “misinformation campaign” by the Congress on Lingayats. The party also held a meeting of senior leaders at Yediyurappa’s residence to discuss a strategy to counter the Congress’ alleged attempt to lure the Lingayat vote.
“From 1967, till 1990 — except the nine-month rule of Veerendra Patil — the Congress did not have one Lingayat chief minister…it went ahead to break the Lingayat community (in 2018 when the Siddaramaiah-led government accorded separate religion status to Lingayats). The people won’t forget how they tried to break a community to create a vote bank,” Bommai told reporters in Bengaluru.
The CM was referring to how, ahead of the elections in 2018, Siddaramaiah had tried to draw a distinction between Veerashaivas and Lingayats, terms used interchangeably in many parts of the state. The Siddaramaiah government had said that only those Veerashaivas who follow 12th century social reformer Basavanna’s ideals could be included in the minority religion category.
Rift over BJP list
The BJP has replaced at least 22 sitting MLAs — some opting out on their own, several others left out or replaced by family members.
Prominent among those who replaced a family member is B. Y. Vijayendra who got the ticket from Shikaripura, replacing his father, B.S. Yediyurappa. Yediyurappa had opted out of the race last year itself.
Anand Singh, one of the politicians who jumped from the Congress to BJP in 2019, was replaced by his son in Vijayanagara district.
Likewise, the party has replaced Mahadevapura’s incumbent legislator Aravind Limbavali with his wife Manjula Aravind Limbavali for the coming elections.
Several MLAs have aired their grievances in public and have either hinted at parting ways with the BJP or have already done so.
Denied a ticket, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar joined the Congress. During negotiations with Shettar, the party reportedly offered a ticket to a family member.
Politicians like K. Raghupati Bhat, Shettar, S. Angara, S.A. Ramadas, Nehru Olekar, who also left the party, said they were not even informed beforehand that they would be left out of the list.
Cong & JD(S) lists
The Congress also put out its final list Wednesday with Mohammed Shalam contesting from Raichur constituency, B. V. Rajeev Gowda from Sidlaghatta, S. Anand Kumar from C. V. Raman Nagar, H. P. Sridhar Gowda from Arkalgud and Inayath Ali from Mangalore City North.
It has replaced Mohammed Yousuf Savanur and fielded Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan as its candidate from Shiggaon against Bommai.
R. Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, the Congress legislator from Pulakeshinagar in Bengaluru, filed his nominations as an independent candidate after the party hesitated in giving him a ticket. Murthy had won in 2018 with a margin of 81,626 votes, which was one of the highest in the state.
The Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) withdrew tickets to 12 candidates as it made last-minute changes to accommodate leaders such as Anil Lad from Ballari City. It has also fielded former BJP MLA M. P. Kumaraswamy from Mudigere in Chikmagalur district.
Yediyurappa’s one time close associate and relative, N. R. Santosh, secured a JD(S) ticket to contest from Arsikere in Hassan while the party has also accommodated former BJP MLC Ayanur Manjunath.
The party has announced candidates for 200 constituencies and in some places, extended support to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The JD(S) has decided to support the candidature of Darshan Dhruvanarayan, the son of late Congress leader R. Dhruvanarayan, in Nanjangud.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: ‘Left, right, touchables, others’ — how divisions among SCs are impacting Karnataka politics