52 news faces in BJP’s first list of 189 candidates for Karnataka polls, party also lays thrust on ‘social engineering’
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will seek re-election from the Shiggaon constituency. Party sources said there are 52 new faces in the list and 20 sitting MLAs have been dropped. Voting for the 224 seats in the state assembly will be held on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. Given the strong support among Lingayats, the party has decided to give tickets to 51 members of the community. The list includes 32 candidates from the OBC community, 30 from the Scheduled Castes and 16 from the Scheduled Tribes. There are eight women candidates in the list. It has former IAS and IPS officers, five advocates, nine doctors, three educationists, former government employees and social workers.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who is the BJP’s co-in-charge for Karnataka, said the list is a mix of dynamic new faces and experienced leaders. “I am sure they will work together to boost Karnataka’s development journey. With a double engine government, Karnataka will scale new heights of development, progress and prosperity,” he said in a tweet. Minister said every section of the society including marginalized people, women and youth have been given opportunity
“Happy to see the list of BJP candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections. Following PM @NarendraModi ji’s mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, every section of the society including the marginalised, women and youth was given a chance Yes. Best wishes!” he added. There is no candidate from the Muslim community in the list. Party sources said that the names of the candidates for the remaining 35 seats would be finalized by Wednesday afternoon.
Among the prominent candidates announced by the party, BY Vijayendra, son of former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa, will contest from the Shikaripura seat. The BJP has fielded 28-year-old Manikant Rathod against Priyank Kharge, son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, from Chittapur. State Minister B Sriramulu will contest from Bellary Rural, State Health Minister Dr Sudhakar will contest from Chikkaballapur and State Minister Dr Ashwathnarayan will contest from CN Malleswaram seat. State minister R Ashok will contest from two seats – Padmanabhanagar and Kanakapura. He is pitted against Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar in Kanakapura. BJP general secretary CT Ravi will contest from Chikmagalur. V Somanna will contest against Congress leader Siddaramaiah from Varuna seat. V Somanna will also contest from Chamarajanagar seat. The BJP’s strategy seems to be building pressure on senior state Congress leaders in their constituencies as well. The candidates were announced at a press conference here, which was addressed by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is the party’s election in-charge in Karnataka, and party general secretary Arun Singh. Arun Singh said that the graph of BJP is increasing under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the Congress was facing “division and factionalism” while the JD(S) was a “sinking ship”. BJP leaders said the party has taken extensive feedback before deciding on candidates and expressed confidence of the party returning to power in the southern state. Congress has already announced 166 candidates in two lists. Earlier in the day, senior BJP legislator KS Eshwarappa announced his retirement from electoral politics. In 2018, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the last assembly elections winning 104 seats, with the Congress winning 80 and the JD(S) 37. The term of the current Karnataka Legislative Assembly will end on May 24.
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