Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) president B.S. Yeddyurappa on Sunday said his party will provide pension to farmers aged above 65 years and extend the Bhagyalakshmi scheme to middle class families if voted to power.
Speaking after releasing the third list of 41 candidates for the ensuing Assembly elections here, Mr. Yeddyurappa said the party’s election manifesto was under preparation and these would be the salient features of the manifesto to be released on April 10.
Mr. Yeddyurappa claimed there has been widespread enthusiasm among general public, particularly the youth, to join the party.
The party had given preference to new faces, including youth, women and people socially backward classes while fielding candidates, athe former Chief Minister said.
On the occasion, retired IAS officer S. Puttaswamy and former Jagalur MLA S.V. Ramachandra, who recently resigned from his membership from the Legislative Assembly as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party joined the KJP.
While Mr. Ramachandra will contest from Jagalur, Mr. Puttaswamy will contest from Arakalgud.
Mr. Putaswamy said he quit the Congress as social justice was ignored while giving ticket.Prominent among the candidates figured in KJP’s third list are the former BJP MLCs Mohan Limbikai (Hubli-Dharwad West), who is pitted against BJP’s Aravind Bellad, and Shivaraj Sajjan (Byadagi).
The list has seven candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste, three belonging to Sscheduled Tribe, two each women and Muslim. With the third list, the number of KJP candidates announced has touched 143.
