New Delhi: Just as it was preparing to announce its candidates list for the Karnataka assembly polls, the BJP found itself facing a major challenge Tuesday as former chief minister and Hubbali MLA Jagadish Shettar publicly expressed his unhappiness over being excluded. This came as a second blow to the party in the course of one day, after its Other Backward Class (OBC) face K.S. Eshwarappa announced his retirement from electoral politics.
Speaking to mediapersons in Bengaluru, Shettar said, “I have been winning from this seat for the last 30 years, why should I leave the seat for others? Every BJP internal survey has shown that I am popular.” He also urged the BJP central leadership to reconsider its decision.
Earlier in the day, former deputy chief minister Eshwarappa, in a letter to BJP national president J.P. Nadda, stated that he has opted out of the contest of his own will. “The party gave me a lot of responsibility in the last 40 years. I went from booth in-charge to becoming deputy chief minister. I thank all seniors in the party for their trust,” he further wrote, after the party high command, according to sources, called him to say that he will not get a ticket for the 10 May election.
Eshwarappa appears to have taken a leaf out of former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani’s book. Rupani had in 2021 resigned unexpectedly as CM, even as the BJP leadership was gearing up to declare its list of candidates for the state assembly elections. Rupani and three of his ex-cabinet colleagues had while bowing out of the contest written a similar letter. Their decision had come at a time when the party was actively promoting ‘new talent’ rather than veterans in Gujarat.
But these are not the only hurdles the BJP has had to deal with as its hectic discussions over probable candidates went down to the wire (last day for filing nominations is Thursday). Sources in BJP told ThePrint that the party’s first list of candidates has not been released even two days after its election committee meeting due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on the importance of more winnable candidates to beat anti-incumbency and on fielding more “common party workers” on seats instead of sons and daughters of party leaders.
Over the last two days, the party high command has had to do some heavy duty crisis management to prevent possible rebellions over the candidates list, as it is more inclined to prop up new faces rather than veterans. This too has contributed to the announcement getting delayed, sources further said.
On Tuesday, Karnataka BJP leaders held another round of deliberations with state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and Home Minister Amit Shah. Soon after, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that the list will be released Tuesday itself.
BJP now is the only party that has not released its first list of candidates. The Congress and H.D. Devegowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) have already done so.
Asked about the delay in the release of the candidates list, Karnataka BJP spokesperson Ganesh Karnik told ThePrint: “Ticket distribution will be done keeping several factors in mind but once the list is declared, everybody will work to ensure victory.”
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Party leaders have been discussing the list since Friday, when Bommai, senior leader B.S. Yediyurappa and others landed in Delhi. While the candidates are usually announced the day after the election committee meeting, the list is not out yet due to a lack of consensus till Tuesday, party sources said.
Yediyurappa returned to Bengalauru Monday after submitting his list and speaking his mind before the high command but sources said that the reason for the delay “was the PM’s suggestion to hold more deliberations on a few of the seats where the high command’s input is different from that of state leaders”.
“His suggestion was to deny more sitting MLAs (seats) to beat anti-incumbency. Another was to restrict tickets to children of party leaders, and that tickets should be given to common party karyakartas. It has taken several rounds of deliberations in the last two days. Since Home Minister Amit Shah was away, we were told to wait for his return to get the final go-ahead,” a Karnataka BJP leader privy to the developments told ThePrint.
The leader further said that in order to avoid a situation where protests erupt at the Bengaluru party office and district office after the announcement of candidates, the party is “taking more time to consult and do crisis management”.
Adding to the delay is the demands by senior leaders that their children be given tickets. “BSY (Yediyurappa) is seeking a ticket for his son Vijayendra from Shikaripura…Similar is the case with few other leaders who are putting pressure for their kin,” said another Karnataka BJP leader, not wanting to be named.
While it was clear that the one-family-one-ticket rule would be followed for others, the decision on whether Vijayendra would be given a ticket “has been left at the highest level”, according to party sources, who added that it was “very unlikely” that Yediyurappa’s son would not get a ticket as that could “backfire”.
There has also been talk that Eswarappa, a five-time MLA from Shivamogga, had proposed the name of his son K E Kantesh for the Shivamogga seat. Senior leader Govind Karjol and ministers V Somanna and M.T.B. Nagaraj have reportedly also sought tickets for their children.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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