The ruling BJP on Tuesday announced its first list of candidates for 189 constituencies of the total 224 in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly that are going to polls on May 10. The highlight of the list is that it has 52 new faces on the lines of the Gujarat experiment, though the number of replaced incumbent MLAs does not match the Gujarat figures.
As many as 11 incumbent MLAs have been replaced, including veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa, who had already left his constituency to his son B.Y. Vijayendra, and Halady Srinivas Shetty, who had announced retirement from electoral politics.
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Tackling Congress’ two chief ministerial candidates
The list indicates a plan by the BJP to tackle the two chief ministerial candidates of the Opposition Congress as it has fielded Minister and Lingayat leader V. Somanna against Congress leader Siddaramaiah in Varuna constituency. Mr. Somanna will also be contesting from Chamarajanagar.
Similarly, BJP’s Vokkalliga leader and Minister R. Ashok will be taking on KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar in Kanakapura constituency. Mr. Ashok will also contest from his regular constituency of Padmanabhanagar in Bengaluru.
The former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar will be taking on JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Channapatna.
Those replaced
Six-time MLA and Minister Angara has been denied the ticket while another Minister B.S. Anand Singh has been replaced by his son Siddarth Singh. The incumbent MLAs who did not get the ticket are Sanjeev Matandoor (Puttur), K. Raghupati Bhat (Udupi), Lalaji R. Mendon (Kaup), Anil Benake (Belagavi North), Mahadevappa Yadavad (Ramdurg), Ramappa Lamani (Shirahatti), and Gulihatti Shekhar (Hosadurga).
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest from Shiggaon, party national general secretary C.T. Ravi from Chikkamagaluru, and Mr. Vijayendra, BJP State vice-president, will contest from Shikaripur.
The party is yet to announce candidates for Shivamogga City, from where senior leader K.S. Eshwarappa’s son is seeking the ticket, and Hubballi-Dharwad Central where the former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is resisting the party high command’s efforts to convince him to take political retirement.
Similarly, it is yet to announce the candidate for Krishnaraja seat from where S.A. Ramdas was elected to the Assembly in the previous polls.
In Belagavi, the former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has managed to get the ticket for his follower and incumbent MLA Mahesh Kumathalli, scoring over the former Deputy Chief Minister and MLC Laxman Savadi who was keen to contest from this seat.
Deceased Minister Umesh Katti’s son Nikhil Katti and brother Ramesh Katti have been given the ticket while deceased Assembly Deputy Speaker Anand Chandrashekhar Mamani’s wife has been named as candidate.
Former police officer in list
Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao will be contesting from Chamarajpet while another retired IAS officer Anil Kumar will contest from Koratagere.
Sachidanand, a close aide of Mandya MP Sumalatha — who recently extended support to the BJP, has been given the ticket from Srirangapatna.
Caste combination
In all, the first list has eight women, 32 OBC candidates, 30 from SC communities, and 16 from ST communities. Profession and education-wise, it has nine doctors, five advocates, three academics, and 31 postgraduates.
Releasing the list, Karnataka poll in-charge and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said a democratic consultation process involving 25,000 grassroot-level workers had been taken up, right from district level to the State level.
The party leaders had held consultations in Delhi for the last four to five days on finalising the list.
The Congress has already released its two lists comprising 166 names while the JD(S) released the first list long ago.
