After two days of hectic backroom parleys to decide on party’s candidates in the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka, BJP Central Election Committee met in New Delhi on Sunday evening and reportedly almost finalised the first list of candidates.
Party sources said the first list likely to include candidates for 120 - 150 seats will be announced either on Monday or Tuesday. Candidates can begin to file nominations from April 13 and the last date is April 20.
“There is confusion over a few seats. We will have one more round of discussions on Monday. The first list will be released either on Monday or on Tuesday,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters in Delhi after the meeting late on Sunday night.
The Chief Minister and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa reached New Delhi on Friday and has since then been huddled with central leadership, including party president J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Chief Minister did not even return to the State, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the State on Saturday night and Sunday.
Though the BJP CEC meeting was scheduled to be held on Saturday, it was postponed citing the Prime Minister’s non-availability. It was held after he returned to Delhi on Sunday evening. However, sources said that the party bought time to finalise the list. Even as Congress and JD(S) have announced multiple lists of their candidates already, the BJP list has been delayed uncharacteristically. Though there were speculations that “Gujarat model” will be implemented and a lot of incumbent MLAs will be denied ticket, there will be no such exercise on a large scale, sources said. Barring a handful of them, most of the incumbents will get party ticket, multiple party sources said.
Mr. Yediyurappa, S.A. Ravindranath, Haladi Srinivas Shetty, who have announced retirement, Madal Virupakshappa and Nehru Olekar caught in corruption scandals, and N.Y. Gopalkrishna, who has defected to Congress will not get ticket, party sources said. Apart from this, only a few of the incumbents may lose ticket, sources said. Party seniors Jagadish Shettar and K.S. Eshwarappa will likely get ticket, sources said.
While the list was approved by the BJP CEC on Sunday evening, the party withheld the announcement for a day fearing open rebellion within its ranks by aspirants who did not make it. “In each region, a leader has been assigned to reach out to aspirants who did not make it and ensure there is no open rebellion. The list will be announced after this exercise,” a senior party functionary said.
Though the party is facing anti-incumbency and a history where no incumbent dispensation has been reelected to power in the State since 1985, the party’s central leadership is keen on fighting the elections to the finish and want to ensure nothing rocks the boat. This has prompted them to go ahead with most of the incumbents and placate all possible rebels before the list is announced, sources said. “This is a departure from how this high command usually functions. This shows that they are leaving no stone unturned to win this election and are accommodating the State’s peculiarities and needs,” a senior leader said.
