Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa will be in Belagavi for a two-day visit to the city on December 4 and 5, to speak at party meetings.
He will interact with senior leaders, including national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Arun Singh, State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel, vice-president Nirmal Kumar Surana and other members of the State core committee.
The core committee will meet over dinner at a private hotel here on December 4. The next day, senior leaders will address the State executive committee members at the Gandhi Bhavan.
Participants in the core committee meeting have two tasks before them — one, short-listing candidates for the Lok Sabha bypoll necessitated by the death of Union Minister Suresh Angadi and the other, preparing for the gram panchayat polls.
The committee will focus on the selection of candidates, say party insiders.
Sources say that aspirants include Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, members of the Angadi family [his daughters and nephew Akash Angadi], Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, the former MLAs Sanjay Patil and Arvind Patil, MLAs Vishwanath Patil and Mahantesh Dodagoudar, the former MP Amarsinha Patil, and those with Sangh Parivar background such as Raju Chikkanagoudar, social workers Veeresh Kivudasannavar and Girish Sonwalkar.
Senior leaders have received broad outlines about the selection. The candidate should be from the Sangh Parivar background or should be well versed with it. The candidate should fit into the caste matrix of the district. He should be preferably in the 40-50 age group and with good communication skills and should have a clean image, a leader said.
“The party is not in favour of fielding members of the Angadi family, at least as of now. However, it will be considered if it becomes an emotional issue,” said another leader who has been in the core committee earlier.
However, Mr. Shettar has denied that he is a claimant. “It is an irrelevant question,” he told journalists at a party meeting for the gram panchayat polls on Wednesday. He said that neither was he seeking ticket nor was his candidature being discussed by the party. It is just a media creation, he said.
Mr. Surana said that over 400 members of the State executive committee would participate in the meeting online. Around 140 members will attend the meeting in person, he said. They will include district presidents and other important functionaries.
