Soon after the completion of polling for the Lok Sabha elections, political parties in the State are focussing on the byelection to the Legislative Assembly from Kundagol and Chincholi scheduled for May 19.
While the BJP core committee on Thursday finalised the names of two candidates and recommended them to its central election committee for approval, Congress leaders held a meeting to discuss about probable candidates.
The byelection to Chincholi segment in Kalaburagi district has been necessitated owing to the resignation of Umesh Jadhav from his Assembly membership. He quit the Congress and contested the Lok Sabha election from Kalaburagi on a BJP ticket. The byelection to Kundagol segment in Dharwad district has been necessitated owing to the death of Minister C.S. Shivalli.
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The former Minister Baburao Chavan, who recently quit the BJP and joined the Congress, and the former zilla panchayat member Subhash Rathod are the major aspirants for the Congress ticket for Chincholi.
The party is expected to field Kusuma Shivalli, wife of the late Minister, in Kundagol.
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Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Thursday held talks with leaders from Kalaburagi district and discussed names of winnable candidates in Chincholi constituency. Mr. Chavan, who has emerged as the top contender for party ticket, returned to the Congress last month and campaigned for the party candidate M. Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha election. Sources in the Congress said another local leader Honna Naik is also vying for ticket to contest from Chincholi. Mr. Kharge is expected to take a final call in the selection of the candidate.
The BJP core committee has recommended the name of Ramachandra Jadhav, brother of Dr. Umesh Jadhav, for the Chincholi seat. Similarly, it has played safe and recommended the name of S.I. Chikkanagoudar for the Kundagol seat. He had lost the seat by a margin of 634 votes in the 2018 election.
By choosing Mr. Ramachandra Jadhav, the BJP has rewarded Dr. Umesh Jadhav for joining the party and contesting against Mr. Kharge. BJP’s Sunil Vallyapure had lost the Chincholi seat by a margin of 19,212 votes in the 2018 election.
The party’s central election committee is expected to announce the names in the next two days. The last day for filing nominations is April 29, and counting of votes will be taken up on May 23.
BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa told reporters after the core committee meeting that a seat-wise internal analysis of the polling pattern in the Lok Sabha elections in the State had vindicated their hunch that the party would win 22 seats. The party would hold review meetings in each of the 28 parliamentary constituencies in the first week of May, he said.
Meanwhile, the core committee meeting also decided to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission of India over deletion of a large number of names from the voters’ list across the State, especially in Bengaluru.